The Surgeon General’s Call to Action urges partners in sectors across the country to focus on skin cancer as a significant public health problem. The Call to Action consists of five strategic goals, which are to increase opportunities for sun protection in outdoor settings; provide individuals with the information they need to make healthy choices about ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure; promote policies that advance the nation’s goal of preventing skin cancer; reducing harm from indoor tanning; and enhancing research, monitoring, and evaluation with regards to skin cancer prevention.

Intentional tanning behaviors increase an individual’s risk for skin cancer. The Call to Action aims to reduce excessive and unnecessary UV exposure, and intentional exposure of skin to harmful UV rays, as is the case with indoor tanning.

“Much like the surgeon general comes out very vehemently against youth smoking, I am coming out quite vehemently against youth exposing their skin to ultraviolet radiation in tanning booths,” U.S. Surgeon General Boris D. Lushniak told The Washington Post.

According to the official surgeon general’s report, the World Health Organization classified indoor tanning devices as Class I human carcinogens in 2009 based on the strong evidence linking indoor tanning to heightened risk of skin cancer. A 2014 meta-analysis suggests that over 400,000 cases of skin cancer could be related to indoor tanning in the U.S. every year. This includes 245,000 basal cell carcinomas, 168,000 squamous cell carcinomas, and 6,000 melanomas.

Beginning indoor tanning at a younger age seems to be more strongly linked to an individual’s lifetime cancer risk, perhaps due to the accumulation of exposure over time from years of tanning.