U.S. DISTRICT COURT Skin cancer patient files suit against tanning bed industry

Dermatologists are against indoor tanning.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A city man who says he got skin cancer from using an at-home tanning bed has sued the tanning bed industry on behalf of anyone injured by the machines.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Youngstown, contends that Nelson Welke of Atlantic Street suffered malignant melanoma -- skin cancer -- as a result of using a bed made by a Georgia manufacturer.
"There is a lot of clinical studies that have tied [tanning] beds to malignant melanomas," said Atty. Joseph D. Ohlin. "Everyone wants a tan; they want to look good. But it is not always good for you."
Welke could not be reached for comment.
According to the suit, Welke, 64, purchased a tanning bed in 1993 and used it regularly until learning that ultraviolet rays from the bed may have caused the malignant melanoma to form on the skin of his chest.
The melanoma required a hospital stay and surgical treatment, the lawsuit says.
Ohlin said he will ask the judge assigned to the case to allow the suit to continue on behalf of all people injured by tanning beds, and against the industry as a whole.
He said the case is modeled after tobacco lawsuits, in which lawyers targeted the industry as a whole to win verdicts for entire classes of smokers.
Ohlin added there are no warning labels on tanning beds as there are on cigarettes.
Hazards and effects
Ohio Cosmetology Board regulations require tanning salons to post signs warning customers "of the potential effects of radiation on persons taking medicine and the possible relation of radiation to skin cancer."
The American Academy of Dermatology Association supports a ban on indoor tanning equipment except for medical use.
According to an association position statement, "The hazards of indoor tanning have been well-documented from experimental sources as well as from epidemiological studies and clinical observations."
On her way out of Sun Kissed Tanning in Warren, Trisha King, 25, said she was not concerned about the possibility of cancer.
"You can get it from standing out in the sun," said King, of Vienna. "If it is going to happen, it is going to happen, whether I'm in a tanning bed or laying out in the sun somewhere."
The suit names Wolf Tanning Equipment Co., of Marietta, Ga., along with other unnamed manufacturers, designers and distributors of the equipment.
No company could be located at the address on the lawsuit.