Idaho Tanning Bill that will affect youths heads to the house floor
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LEWISTON, ID - The bill prohibits the use of tanning beds for all younger people, under the age of 16.
The bill has passed the Idaho Health and Welfare committee with an eight to two vote and now will head to the House of Representatives. Parental consent for children 16 and 17 years old will also be needed. Tanning poses a serious health concern and heightens the risk for skin cancer, a statistic that doctors often times agree with.
"Older people getting a tan in a tanning bed, not so much of a risk for melanoma developing, but it's in children and adolescents that are using these tanning beds are at risk for developing melanoma in the next 15 to 20 years," said SJRMC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Michael Rooney.
A similar measure died in the Senate last year, but has gained renewed support. $100 for first offenses, $300 for second offenses and upwards to $500 for any additional offenses are fines put in place, if the bill is passed.
The bill has passed the Idaho Health and Welfare committee with an eight to two vote and now will head to the House of Representatives. Parental consent for children 16 and 17 years old will also be needed. Tanning poses a serious health concern and heightens the risk for skin cancer, a statistic that doctors often times agree with.
"Older people getting a tan in a tanning bed, not so much of a risk for melanoma developing, but it's in children and adolescents that are using these tanning beds are at risk for developing melanoma in the next 15 to 20 years," said SJRMC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Michael Rooney.
A similar measure died in the Senate last year, but has gained renewed support. $100 for first offenses, $300 for second offenses and upwards to $500 for any additional offenses are fines put in place, if the bill is passed.
It just blows my mind that the doctors (dermatologists especially) are the one trying to get rid of tanning when the reality of it is, they use the exact same equipment in their offices. Professional tanning salons must be taking away too much of their businesses from them when it comes to treating non life threatening skin diseases such as psoriasis. The real issue here is that research is being misrepresented to back these type of bans. The people (yes, doctors included) that back this legislation cite one study on tanning beds and melanoma and act as though the connection between the two is quite clear. But, what about the many published studies that studied tanning bed use and melanoma and did not find a connection? Oh, those must have been a mistake I suppose. The reality is that their one study ("tanning bed use before the age of 35 increases melanoma risk by 75 per cent") is not even applicable to tanning salons. This number was derived from data sets including tanning bed use in tanning salons, unmonitored home use, and use by doctors for medical phototherapy. The data on tanning salon use showed a 6% (statistically insignificant) increase, the home use a 40% increase and the medical phototherapy a 96% increase. Now, I'm not saying that there aren't some risks involved with tanning bed use, especially overuse, but I am pointing out that the science is not even close to as clear as it's made out to be. If it was, surely they would use better research to back their legislation. Unfortunately, because of the groups backing these bans, nobody cares to question the research. Don't get me wrong, I think parental consent is more than appropriate but, I feel tan bans for kids under certain ages is not going to solve any problems, this should be left to the parents