In many U.S. cities, tanning salons appear to be located in areas where more gay and bisexual men live, according to a study that suggests this may be one reason for higher rates of skin cancer among sexual minority men.

The researchers examined data on the number of households with married partner couples in 4,091 census areas in 10 major U.S. cities and the distribution of tanning beds in those cities. The chances of living near a tanning bed were twice as high in areas where at least 10 percent of households were male couples than in areas with fewer gay households.

This matters because gay men already experience many health differences and also have higher rates of skin cancer, said Dr. Eleni LINOS, senior author of the study and Professor of dermatology and epidemiology at Stanford University in California.

Tanning beds are a known carcinogen, so with this carcinogen more available in these areas is a problem, LINOS said by email.

Skin cancer is becoming more common in the U.S., and indoor tanning causes more than 450,000 basal and squamous cell cancers and more than 10,000 melanomas each year, LINOS and colleagues write in the JAMA Network Open.

Compared to heterosexual men, sexual minority men who identify as gay and bisexual have six times the prevalence of tanning bed use and more than twice the risk of skin cancer, the researchers note.

For the current study, researchers looked at residents in 176 census precincts and identified a total of 196 tanning salons in 10 cities: Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego, Dallas, Phoenix, Portland, Denver and Washington, D.C.

There were 482,823 unmarried partnered households, of which 35,164, or 7.3 percent, were male couples.

The overall relationship between tanning salon locations and households with male partners did not change significantly, even if the researchers took into account other factors that may affect the availability of indoor tanning salons, such as the income of men, the percentage of white residents, and the percentage of young women.

One limitation of the study is that There’s no comprehensive list of tanning salon locations, and its possible researchers lacked data on some indoor tanning businesses in locations such as gyms, apartment complexes, College campuses and hotels, the research team notes.

Another drawback is that the census data only contains information on households headed by same-sex partners, but not on sexual orientation.

Despite this, the results offer fresh evidence of how some businesses serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community can contribute to health inequalities, the research team notes.

Public health professionals are calling for industries like tobacco or the sugar industry to promote their products while widening health inequalities, LINOS said.

For example, the tobacco industry has been shown to market to LGBT communities, and tobacco retailers cluster in LGBT neighborhoods, LINOS added. Our findings raise questions about whether the indoor tanning industry is trying to target LGBT communities.

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