Ministers are preparing to clamp down on the cosmetic tanning industry after international experts on cancer said sunbeds belonged in the same category of carcinogenic risk as tobacco smoke.

The Department of Health said it was reviewing its stance on sunbeds after the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) upgraded its assessment of the risk posed by sunbeds and sunlamps.

Until now the IARC, which advises the World Health Organisation, categorised sunbeds as "probably carcinogenic to humans". But after conducting further research into the evidence around their effects it has placed them in its highest cancer risk category.

The Department of Health, which has resisted previous calls to regulate the industry, said: "Sunbeds can be dangerous – we must ensure that people who use them do so safely. If necessary we will look at new laws to protect young people."

A report by Dr Fatiha El Ghissassi and colleagues from the IARC in France published tomorrow in The Lancet Oncology said: "The use of UV-emitting tanning devices is widespread in many developed countries, especially among young women. A comprehensive meta-analysis concluded that the risk of skin melanoma is increased by 75% when use of tanning devices starts before 30 years of age." Several studies had also linked sunbed use to a greater likelihood of developing a rare eye cancer called ocular melanoma, they added.

The IARC's WHO agency for research on cancer therefore "raised the classification of the use of UV-emitting tanning devices to Group 1, 'carcinogenic to humans'," they said.

Other recognised carcinogens include tobacco smoke, asbestos, benzine, formaldehyde and the Epstein-Barr virus, which causes glandular fever.

Health campaigners last night welcomed the move and demanded government action. Jessica Harris of Cancer Research UK said: "Given the dangers of sunbeds we want the government to act now to ban under-18s from using sunbeds, close salons that aren't supervised by trained staff and ensure information about the risk of using sunbeds is given to all customers."

People should avoid sunbeds completely for cosmetic purposes, she said. " They have no health benefits and they increase the risk of cancer."

Nina Goad of the British Association of Dermatologists said: "We know that ultraviolet radiation (UVR) causes skin cancer, and sunbeds create a tan by emitting UVR, so we welcome the recognition that sunbeds are carcinogenic. It is high time that steps were taken to regulate the industry, to prevent children using sunbeds, and to ensure that sunbeds are subject to health warnings like other known carcinogens."

Some salons advertise health "benefits" to using sunbeds but offer customers no guidance on health risks, she added. "Hopefully categorising sunbeds as a known carcinogen will prompt the government to introduce compulsory health warnings on tanning beds."

Julie Barratt of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, which represents environmental health officers, also called for new restrictions. "This new research underlines the case for urgent reform. We want coin-operated ones, where there are no staff, banned because anyone, including children, can go in and do what they like. All sunbed premises should be registered with the local authority, under-18s should not be able to use them, and everybody using a sunbed should have to be given advice about the health risks."

A Department of Health spokesman said it was examining what action it might take following a report last month from the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (Comare), a group of government advisers. It recommended that anyone under 18 should not be allowed to use sunbeds. Professor Alex Elliott, who chairs Comare, said people could buy a walk-in tanning machine that inside two minutes gave the user the same UV exposure as a fortnight's holiday in the Mediterranean.

The spokesman added: "We commissioned a report from Comare to give us a better understanding of the issues around sunbeds. This report was published in June and we are considering the recommendations in full." Government sources said action was "very likely".

Kathy Banks, chief executive of the Sunbed Association, said it disputed IARC's reclassification of sunbeds as carcinogenic.

She said: "There is no proven link between the responsible use of sunbeds and skin cancer. The relationship between UV exposure and an increased risk of developing skin cancer is only likely to arise where over-exposure – that is, burning – has taken place.

"This outcome would be the same whether burning takes place on a sunbed or on a beach or in a park or garden in natural sunlight. Over 80% of sunbed users are very knowledgeable about the risks associated with over-exposure to UV and the majority of sunbed users take 20 or less sunbed sessions a year."