Inquirer Editorial: Tanning beds: like 'cigarettes for the skin'

Fully two-thirds of the states restrict teens' access to tanning beds, so New Jersey joined the public-health mainstream this month when Gov. Christie signed a welcome ban on indoor tanning for anyone under 17. Pennsylvania officials should follow suit by acting on similar legislation just proposed in Harrisburg.

It's long past time for both states to protect teens - especially high-school-age girls - from the well-documented risk of skin cancer from misuse of commercial tanning facilities.

The Garden State ban comes a year after a North Jersey mother was arrested following allegations that she took her 5-year-old daughter to a tanning booth. While child-endangerment charges lodged against the woman didn't stick, the case made national headlines. And it prompted Trenton lawmakers to get to work.

The resulting measure also protects older teens by requiring that 17-year-olds going to a first tanning session be accompanied by a consenting parent.

Despite the tanning industry's objections, a growing body of research demonstrates the cancer risks of tanning beds, which are in particularly heavy use this time of year among prom-bound teenage girls. As the head of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, Dr. C. Richard Schott, notes, "Unaware of the inherent dangers of exposing their bodies to unnecessary and intense ultraviolet radiation, these young women are actually setting the stage for a potentially life-threatening disease: malignant melanoma."

It has been several years since the International Agency for Research on Cancer heightened its warning about tanning beds, comparing their cancer risks to those of cigarettes.

Industry officials responding to the new limits contended that barring young teens from salons might cause them to overuse home tanning devices or overexpose themselves to the sun. Those claims, however, are disputed by federal health officials, who note that tanning beds expose skin to UV-A and UV-B rays, both of which have been found to damage skin and lead to cancer.

Indeed, Pennsylvania Rep. Rosemarie Swanger (R., Lebanon), whose tough proposal would bar minors from tanning salons, has said that "tanning beds are essentially cigarettes for the skin." Her measure follows earlier Republican-led efforts to regulate the state's tanning salons, which should bode well for making headway on the issue this time around. Especially given the Medical Society's enthusiastic endorsement of Swanger's measure this week, lawmakers should move quickly to get teens out from under the glare of indoor tanning lights.