Dermatology World May 2011 : Page-28
Banning the Tan gains momenTum ings are consistent with other study findings and speak to the argument that more restrictive legislation may be more effective in reducing tanning bed use. “Studies have shown that tanning salons in states with legisla-tion, and in particular tanning bans for minors, tend to be more compliant with providing informed consent, restricting youth, and obtaining parental consent,” said Bruce A. Brod, M.D., clinical associate professor of dermatology at the University of Penn-Tanning salons in states with legislation are more sylvania School of Medicine in likely to provide informed consent, restrict youth, and Philadelphia. “So obtain parental consent. the legislation is having an impact, but not as much as we would like.” The easiest thing to change about regulation is youth according to a 2007 study published in the Journal of the access, said Robin L. Hornung, M.D., M.P.H., a pediatric American Academy of Dermatology . Specifically, Texas and New Hampshire were the most restrictive regarding dermatologist at the Everett Clinic and clinical associate professor in the division of dermatology at the Univer-minors’ access. (Wisconsin has joined them with a law sity of Washington in Seattle. that bans tanning under the age of 16.) More recently, Another reason that state regulations may have bills prohibiting the use of tanning beds by minors have limited impact is because they are not being enforced. been introduced in Iowa, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, A 2008 study published in Preventing Chronic Dis-New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington, and Vermont. Parental consent bills ease found that routine annual inspections were not conducted in 64 percent of cities required to do so. have been introduced in California, Florida, Minnesota, Specifically, 32 percent of the cities did not inspect Nevada, South Dakota, and West Virginia. Legislation indoor tanning salons for compliance with state law and is expected to be proposed in Massachusetts and North another 32 percent conducted inspections less than an-Carolina this year, said Kathryn Chandra, assistant nually. Slightly less than half of the cities issued citations director of state policy for the American Academy of to tanning salons that violated state law. The good news Dermatology Association. is that when conducted on an unannounced basis, these inspections were more likely to be effective. Lacks impact While all of this legislative activity is encouraging, what is not is the limited effect that regulation appears to have EncouragE EnforcEmEnt on tanning salon patrons. According to a 2009 study Why are indoor tanning facilities not being more closely published in Cancer , the prevalence of indoor tanning monitored? For starters, it’s easier to enforce a ban use among U.S. adolescents barely changed between rather than a complicated regulation. “The more com-1998 and 2004, despite more states restricting tanning plex the regulation gets, the more difficult it is to enforce bed use by minors. The authors suggest one reason it,” said Martin A. Weinstock, M.D., Ph.D., professor of the laws have had such little impact is that many states dermatology and community health at Brown University permit use with parental consent. Two of the five factors in Providence, R.I. significantly associated with indoor tanning use cited But the primary reason is lack of funding. “The fo-were parental permission and having a parent/guardian cus has been on licensing, regulations, youth bans, and who used indoor tanning within the previous year. parental consent, and maybe not enough on how to fund The Cancer study did note that the use of indoor tan-those,” said Dr. Brod, who pointed out that in New ning by minors decreased slightly in states that enacted Hampshire a bill was recently introduced that would youth access policies while use by minors increased reverse its existing regulations to save the state money. slightly in states that lacked such policies. These find-Continued on p. 30 To date, 36 states have regulations that range from banning the use of tanning beds for minors to restrict-ing their use by requiring parental consent or accompa-niment. Oregon, Illinois, South Carolina, Florida, Indi-ana, Iowa, and Rhode Island are considered to have the most stringent overall regulations based on factors such as minors’ access, ultraviolet (UV) exposure control, operator training, violation penalties, and sanitation, 28 Dermatology WorlD // May 2011 www.aad.org
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