Speaking of addictions, some folks have a real thing for that so-called healthy glow.

They want a tan so badly they’ll even get one when there’s no sun around by spending time in a tanning salon.

But let’s call this what it really is: An unhealthy fascination with an unhealthy skin condition that can lead to cancer. Even tanners who manage to avoid cancer have to face wrinkles, premature aging and skin that resembles beef jerky.

While we’ve known for years that spending too much time unprotected in the sun can lead to cancer, officials now are finally ready to say out loud what many of us have been warning for years: Tanning beds cause cancer, too.

Until now, they would only say these things are a “probable carcinogen.” But a new analysis of 20 studies means they can’t deny it any more. It turns out that skin cancer incidences jump by 75 percent in folks who start using tanning beds before the age of 30.

It’s an absurdly high number – we may as well just count the folks who didn’t get cancer at that point.

Not only that, but the research – which was published in July in the online edition of the journal Lancet Oncology – shows that tanning beds increase the risk of the deadliest form of cancer, melanoma, by 20 percent.

The new classification means tanning beds are now in the same category as smoking and sweeping chimneys.

Skin cancer is often preventable, but in these cases it’s almost always preventable. You can simply choose not to go to the tanning salon and have an instant beneficial impact on your long-term health.

The ironic thing is that most of us can’t seem to get the exact right amount of sun. We do need it. It helps our bodies to make vitamin D, a nutrient we’re sadly deficient in. It’s gotten so bad in recent years that I now recommend a D supplement much more frequently.

But if you really want to be tan, here’s my advice: Wear more khaki.