Austria Bans Sun Beds for Minors Due to Skin Cancer Risk

Austria - the third country to ban the use tanning sun beds by children

Tanning salons violating the law can be fined up to € 2180 (US $2900) for each violation of the law.

Why should national law makers care whether children use tanning beds? Since 1980, when tanning salons first began to become common, rates of malignant melanoma, an often-fatal form of skin cancer, have increased about 50 per cent. The rates of melanoma have gone up the most where there are the most tanning salons.

This isn't surprising, because tanning is the result of damage to the skin's DNA. The process of repairing the sun- or salon-damaged DNA is what locks pigment into the skin. When fair skin burns without tanning, there is also DNA damage, but there is no tan without changing skin DNA.

That's why many dermatologists believe there is really no such thing as a completely safe tan. There are only higher and lower risks of future skin cancer, depending on whether or not the skin is burned or tanned. Burning is more likely to cause future cancer, but tanning raises the risk of skin cancer, too.

The overwhelming majority of users of tanning beds are women and girls. Print media aimed at women and girls often extols the look of being tanned, but seldom mentions the risk of being tanned. When skin protection methods are mentioned, the suggestion is far more likely to be to use sunscreen (which defeats the purpose of using the tanning bed, and is likely to be ignored) than to use protective clothing (creating a tan line, but protecting skin from cancer).

Tanning beds in the United States

In the United States, use of tanning beds is associated with a number of risky behaviors that can cause long-term damage to health. The journal Cancer Causes and Control reported that adolescent girls who use tanning beds are:

• Up to twice as likely to be concerned about weight as girls who do not tan,
• Up to twice as likely to go on serial diets (weight loss followed by weight regain) as girls who do not tan,
• Up to six times as likely to try to lose weight by taking laxatives,
• Five times more likely to have friends who place importance on being thin, and
• Three times more likely to engage in smoking, binge drinking, or illegal drugs.

READ Tanning Beds and UV Rays Cause Addict-like Brain Changes

Obviously, banning tanning beds for adolescent girls is not going to put an immediate end to serial dieting, peer pressure to look good, smoking, binge drinking, or illegal drugs. But American legislators are also looking at banning tanning for minors as a way to reduce future cancer risk.

What about tanning as a source of vitamin D? Although vitamin D deficiency, ironically, also increases the risk of skin cancer, it's possible to get all the vitamin D your body needs with a simple, safe supplement of 2,000 up to 10,000 IU a day. And if you must tan, consider getting a beautiful tan line by covering up the right parts of your skin, and limit yourself to 20 minutes in any single visit to the salon.