The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has had to retract a misleading claim that sunbeds are as dangerous a cancer risk as smoking.

In January, health officials announced stricter rules for sunbeds, incorrectly claiming they were “as dangerous as smoking”. The comparison was repeated in social media posts shared by the health secretary and NHS England and was reported by a number of media outlets.

But the factchecking organisation Full Fact said the claim was wrong, concluding “misleading information about the risk of cancer … risks making smoking seem less harmful than it is”.

While both smoking and sunbeds cause cancer, the risks are not equal.

According to calculations by Cancer Research UK, smoking causes about 80 times more cancer cases than sunbeds in the UK.

Dr Claire Knight, the senior health information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified both UV radiation from sunbeds and tobacco in ‘group 1’, meaning there is strong evidence both cause cancer. But that doesn’t mean they cause the same number of cases of cancer. Tobacco has a much bigger impact on cancer cases.”

The incident is likely to be embarrassing for the DHSC as it often highlights the need to give the public accurate health information.

It was not until March, after intervention from the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR), that the DHSC corrected its announcement and its Instagram and Facebook posts, and deleted its post on X.

Leo Benedictus, a senior journalist specialising in science, data and investigations at Full Fact, said: “The DHSC decided not to correct this when we first told them about it, so it’s a good thing that the OSR convinced them to change their minds.

“This is more than just a point of principle. Bad information from health authorities can be dangerous if it lingers on the internet, because AI chatbots can pick it up and use it to give supposedly trustworthy answers to people’s questions.”

In a statement, the OSR said: “Public bodies have a responsibility to communicate statistics clearly and accurately and not be used in a way that has the potential to mislead. Following our engagement, the DHSC took quick action to correct the information it had published comparing sunbeds to smoking and has committed to no longer using this comparison.”

A DHSC spokesperson said: “Sunbed use is dangerous but smoking is uniquely harmful and is the leading preventable cause of death, disability and ill health.

“The World Health Organization has classified UV-emitting devices such as sunbeds a group 1 carcinogen – the same category as other cancer-causing hazards including smoking.

“We amended our original line to add some additional context.”