BOSTON (AP) – Tanning booths are the latest area where teenagers need to be protected from themselves, according to lawmakers and health officials pushing legislation they say will reduce the number of new skin cancer cases.
New harsher penalties went into effect this weekend for teenage drivers who speed or drag race on public roads. Now, some on Beacon Hill want to prevent teens from recklessly exposing themselves to ultraviolet rays at an age in their lives when they can be most harmful.
The legislators are slated to testify at a hearing Thursday on a bill that would prohibit youths under 16 years old from using tanning booths and would require parental consent for 16- and 17-year-olds who want an indoor tan.
“Let’s not make it so easy for young people to expose their skin to dangerous rays,” said Sen. Pamela Resor, one of the bill’s sponsors.
The World Health Organization says young people are more susceptible to skin damage from sunburns than are adults and recommends that no one under age 18 use tanning booths.
Prom season leads many teenagers to seek that bronzed look, said Resor, D-Acton.
“Particularly for young women, there’s such pressure to look tanned and beautiful. As with eating disorders, it can be disruptive to their health. There definitely is peer pressure,” she said.
Two years ago the Cape Cod town of Brewster barred anyone under 18 from using tanning beds.
Many states have passed laws or are considering legislation to prohibit or limit teens’ access to tanning beds. California, Illinois, and New Jersey prohibit children under 14 from using them. In Minnesota and Mississippi, the legal minimum age for indoor tanning is 16. Colorado and North Dakota have similar bills pending, and legislation in Utah would require parental consent for minors to use tanning booths.
Nicole Haller, manager of Campus Tan near Northeastern University, said her employees ask each customer whether they burn easily and sometimes suggest alternatives to ultraviolet ray tanning.
“If people are fair-skinned, we don’t recommend UV tanning. For people who burn pretty easily, we recommend spray-tanning,” which she said involves spraying the person with a sugar cane extract that darkens the skin.
Bill co-sponsor Sen. James Timilty, D-Walpole, said Massachusetts has a skin cancer rate higher than the national average and said the long winters and relatively short summer season can cause people to crave the sun’s rays.
“I think people get very anxious to be out in the sun. And some people also don’t realize you can be exposed to harmful rays even on a cloudy day. If you can see your shadow at all, you’re feeling some effects,” he said.
The bill also was filed in the past legislative session, but wasn’t adopted, Resor said. Enforcement of the proposed law would be handled by local boards of health.
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