Doc: NC Youths Should be Barred From Tanning Beds

I recently read an article called Doc: NC Youths Should be Barred From Tanning Beds. This article is about how North Carolina youths should be barred from getting bronzed at the local tanning salon because their risks for cancer are too great. Dr. Kelly Nelson, an assistant dermatology professor at Duke University medical school, said the rate of melanoma among women under age fifty is increasing during an era in which the number of available tanning beds is increasing. Young people, particularly girls who want the summertime look year round, are being exposed to higher doses of ultraviolet radiation that can accumulate and break down skin cells over time, Nelson told House members. More than 61,000 people were diagnosed with skin melanomas and about 9,200 died from them in 2009, the most recent year that figures were available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We believe strongly that the parental consent standard that is in place in North Carolina works and should be continued," said Joseph Levy, senior vice president of Smart Tan Educational Institute. Levy said tanning beds generate two to three times the radiation that bill supporters argue correlate with the cancer compared to regular sunlight, not the 15 times Nelson calculated. And he cited data from the National Cancer Institute that he says show the incidence of melanoma for men over age 50 is outpacing women under fifty. If the bill becomes law, teenagers would simply go to unregulated tanning beds in homes, Levy said. These beds aren't regulated by the state and may not follow conservative tanning regimens. Only California and Vermont have banned the use of tanning equipment by anyone under eighteen. I've never used a tanning bed so I don't know how it is. Have you used a tanning bed?