One of the governors in USA has signed a bill preventing teens and minors from using indoor tanning beds, even if they have signed consent from parents. This bill has lead to debate among the Indoor Tanning Association and the Melanoma Research Alliance about whether or not teens should be banned from indoor tanning.
The Melanoma Research Alliance has applauded the bold move from Gov. Jerry Brown. They show research from the University of Minnesota that individuals who use indoor tanning beds are more likely to develop skin cancer by 74 percent than those who do not. In fact, men and women who use indoor tanning beds often end up with melanoma, the most aggressive form of skin cancer.
While the studies have not determined whether the relationship between melanoma and tanning beds is a dose-response relationship, it has been proven that indoor tanners have a higher incidence of melanoma than the rest of the population.
The Indoor Tanning Association takes a different approach to the new legislation. They point out that research has not proven a dose-response relationship, and in fact it has not even determined if exposure to UV rays from the sun or a sun bed that do not result in burning increases the chances of developing skin cancer.
The association suggests that instead of protecting teens and minors from harmful activities, the governor is actually hurting the business and that it pushes teens to start sunbathing outside, which is not supervised and might end up in more cancer-causing sunburns.
The debate about whether teens should be banned from tanning salons continues. Whether it protects teens or not is yet to be seen, but the legislation has taken affect. Residents around the country continue to debate whether or not teens should be allowed to tan in an indoor tanning salon due to the results of cancer studies, but overall it seems that preventing teens from tanning in a salon should lower the rate of melanoma in young individuals.