Training | 2009.06.20
Sunbed ban for under-18s urged
• Use raises cancer risk in later life, evidence shows
• Tanning salons must be regulated, says committee
Sunbeds should be banned from use by anyone under 18, a government committee recommended yesterday, after mounting evidence showing that young people exposed to UV rays are more likely to get cancer in later life.
Professor Alex Elliott, who chairs the influential Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (Comare), said he was concerned at the number of young women using unregulated, sometimes unsupervised, tanning salons without knowledge of the health risks.
Every year about 370 people develop melanomas, the most serious form of skin cancer, due to sunbed use, and 100 die.
Elliott, also works in Glasgow\'s Western Infirmary, said he had seen young girls queueing outside coin-operated sunbed centres.
Young people are advised not to use sunbeds by Cancer Research UK and the Sunbed Association. But the advice is being ignored. Surveys show that most people using sunbeds are young.
A questionnaire in two schools in Merseyside in 2007 found that 43% of 14- and 16-year-olds had used sunbeds, with the girls much more so than the boys, and that that increased with age. Yet those who first use a sunbed before the age of 35 are 75% more likely to develop skin cancer than others. There is also evidence that girls in less affluent areas are more likely to visit a tanning salon, particularly if their mother frequents it. "Childhood use is more common in areas of relative deprivation and households where adults use sunbeds on a regular basis," said Elliott.
The increasing strength of tanning machines is another concern for Comare. It was possible, said Elliott, to buy a walk-in machine that, within two minutes, gave the equivalent UV exposure of a two-week Mediterranean holiday.
The Comare report says that statutory regulation of the tanning business is now a necessity.
No one under 18 should be allowed to use a sunbed, or hire or buy one, and no one should use one without supervision, the report says. All tanning outlets should be licensed and regulated, and all staff trained. Scotland is passing laws to protect under-18s but does not plan to require all tanning salons to be licensed.
The government said it would consider regulation. "If necessary we will look at new laws to protect young people," said Gillian Merron, minister for public health.
But Cancer Research UK called on the government to act now. "The Comare report clearly shows there are no health benefits from using sunbeds recreationally and we hope sunbed retailers who do advertise sunbeds as \'healthy\' will take note of the recommendations and stop immediately," said Sarah Woolnough, head of policy. "The rates of malignant melanoma – the most serious form of skin cancer – are rapidly rising in the UK and experts believe that, along with binge tanning on foreign holidays, using sunbeds is one of the main reasons."
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jun/19/sunbed-under-18-banned
