Tanning Laws Could Limit Minors

While high schoolers are scheduling their tanning appointments for the prom and summer seasons, state legislators are working through a bill that would prohibit people younger than 18 from using an indoor tanning bed.
Introduced in March, the bill is intended to limit youth exposure to cancer-causing UV rays found in tanning beds. More than 30 states have already enacted similar laws, however, Pennsylvania’s tanning industry remains unregulated at this time.
According to the American Academy of Dermatology, teens, accounting for 2.3 million tanning appointments per year, experience an increased risk of melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer, each time they use a tanning bed.
“Indoor tanning is dangerous at any age, but the practice, especially popular in the younger generation, causes one in every 20 melanoma cases,” said Ninad Pendharkar, dermatologist at Geisinger-Scenery Park. “Tanning can also lead to premature skin aging, eye damage and other forms of cancer.”
The general misconception, Pendharkar said, is that a tanning bed is safer than tanning outdoors because the bed’s rays are not as dangerous as the sun’s. However, that’s not the case, he said.
“When you’re outside, you have clothes, shade, trees and clouds to protect from direct exposure,” Pendharkar said. “But in a tanning bed, your body is absorbing pure UV rays, which are 10 to 15 times more intense than the sun’s rays.”
Basically, if a body is exposed to enough UV to trigger a tan, the body is also experiencing DNA damage, said Dr. Ricardo Carter, oncologist with Lewistown Hospital. Even after the first tanning appointment, the possibility of melanoma increases by

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