Does home tanning cause skin cancer? Many people say yes and avoid the sun like the plague. The truth is the answer is not that simple. It is important to educate yourself as much as you can on the issue and make a decision that is right for you.
There are 3 different types of skin cancer, some of which are not related to the sun at all. This article specifically discusses issues related to skin cancer that can be caused by UV rays. UV rays are not the only factor involved in skin cancer and it is true that some types of skin cancer are most common in people who stay mostly indoors.
As with a lot of cancers, skin cancer requires some sort of deformity at a cellular level. Two of the reasons why you may have mutated cells is either you inherited them that way or they are caused by free radicals.
Specifically, it is the UV rays that cause concern. UV rays stimulate the presence of free radicals in your body. Free radicals are O2 molecules in your body that end up clinging to other cells in your body. Once they attach to the good cells in your body, those cells are damaged and begin to mutate. You can see why to say that the sun causes cancer is not quite the whole story. The sun emits different types of UV rays, which are absorbed into the body and then cause free radicals in your body which can then turn into cancer cells.
Theoretically, it is possible to intervene at any one of these steps to prevent skin cancer (but only the kind that is cause by UV rays only). You could stay out of the sun, which many people choose to do. However you do lose many of the benefits of being in the sun. Or you could where a very high SPF sunblock, which blocks UV rays from entering your body. In this instance, you can be in the sun but you will not get the tan pigmentation.
Lastly, you can attack the free radicals in your body. Anti-oxidants (get it? Anti-O2??) are what fight free radicals and eliminate them from your body. If you can eliminate the free radicals then you will eliminate that specific risk of skin cancer.
This is obviously a very simplified explanation of skin cancer and home tanning. However, I hope that you realize that if you do actual research you can take control over your body and health; and possibly be able to tan at home and still prevent skin cancer!