Teen Tanning Bill Moves Ahead

Two California Assembly policy committees have approved a bill that would ban minors from using ultraviolet tanning beds.

The California State Assembly Business, Professions and Consumer Protection Committee approved the bill Tuesday. The Assembly Judiciary Committee did the same last week.

The bill, which has , now goes to the Appropriations Committee.

Current law requires that teens between ages 14 and 17 have permission from a parent or guardian before using tanning beds. Children under 14 are banned.

The proposed law would ban anyone under the age of 18 from using tanning beds.

"Recent scientific research has shown that tanning beds cause skin cancer," said the bill's author, state Sen. Ted Lieu, a Democrat whose district includes Hermosa Beach, in a statement.

"The younger kids are when they start using tanning beds, the greater the damage to their skin and the more likely they are to die of skin cancer," Lieu said.

Studies have shown that people who use tanning beds before age 35 increase their lifetime risk of melanoma by 75 percent, Lieu said.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration have both declared ultraviolet rays carcinogens.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, which supports the bill, tanning beds may produce ultraviolet rays that are up to 15 percent more intense than the midday sun.

Opposing the measure is the Indoor Tanning Association, which represents thousands of indoor tanning manufacturers, distributors, facility owners and others from support industries.

The association claims that the industry is already over-regulated, and that the new bill would hurt the industry because minors make up 5 to 10 percent of a tanning salon's clientele.

The association also says that the bill would disproportionately affect female business owners, since the majority of tanning salons are owned by women.

The proposed ban would "take away a very basic right of parents—the right to decide whether or not a teen can suntan indoors," according to a petition on the association's website.

Thirty states have restrictions on teen tanning, but this law would make California's the toughest, Lieu said. Several European countries, including France and England, have banned minors' use of tanning beds, and Brazil has banned tanning beds entirely.

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