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| Lawmakers urged to ban teens from tanning salons |
| Health |
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The Ontario government is under growing pressure to pass a proposed law that would bar teenagers from using tanning salons, the Toronto Star reported. A private member’s bill sponsored by Liberal MPP Khalil Ramal to regulate the tanning industry has been stalled at the committee stage since it passed second reading – or approval in principle – in June 2008. “There are no standards to the system,” Ramal told the Star. “You can have coin-operated tanning salons with no trained person telling you how long to lie there.” “This type of legislation would go a long way in cancer prevention in Ontario,” said Irene Gallagher Jones, a senior manager with the Canadian Cancer Society’s Ontario Division. “We know that skin cancer is one of the most common cancers in young people aged 15 to 29, we now know that tanning beds are carcinogenic to humans, and we know that banning use of tanning devices by youth can help prevent skin cancer.” The need for action on the bill took on a new urgency following the release last month of a new report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. It ranked ultraviolet tanning beds as being in the highest cancer-risk category, alongside other major carcinogens such as asbestos, arsenic and the human papillomavirus. Laws designed to keep teenagers out of tanning salons are now in place in 29 U.S. states, while six more have legislation in the works. But in Canada, New Brunswick alone has taken similar action. A study by the Canadian Cancer Society in 2007 found that more than 50,000 Ontario teens use tanning beds. |
