Health briefs: Flu shot update

There's lots of good news on the flu-shot front. The needle is now "shallower," says Jeff Dimond, spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and delivers the vaccine under the skin rather than into the muscle. This might make it less painful. Also, the vaccine seems to be a good match for the strains of influenza that are circulating, Dimond says. And it appears to be plentiful, with 166 million doses. That includes doses to be administered via nasal spray, available for people 49 or younger.

-- The Washington Post

Tan bed woes

Indoor tanning beds may be even more likely to cause skin cancer than previously believed. New research published online last week in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology suggests the main type of ultraviolet rays used in tanning beds -- UVA1 -- may penetrate to a deep layer of skin that is most vulnerable to the cancer-causing changes caused by UV rays. The new study comes as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers banning the use of tanning beds among children younger than 18.

-- HealthDay