Fake Tan, Real Issues
Ross: I went to the tanning place your wife suggested.
Chandler: Was that place the sun?- Friends, “The One with Ross’s Tan”
The news was abuzz a couple of weeks ago when Victoria officials passed a bylaw that prohibits people under 18 from using indoor tanning beds. This bylaw was based on research evidence and the World Health Organization’s classification that tanning beds as a carcinogen – that they make users (especially the younger they are) much more likely to develop skin cancer (particularly melanoma). And make no mistake, you won’t get in with a note from your parents… this is a straight ban that requires tanning facility operators to card any customer that looks under 25 years old.
Interestingly, the (now-dead) article from the Vancouver Sun reported that many of the people in the gallery as public hearings to debate the subject were held were young girls, there to show their support for the bylaw… I would imagine that’s because they care deeply about the issue and want their peers to be protected from this kind of danger. And they’re not alone… Prince George looks set to follow suit.
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So I’m all for people being healthier… I imagine most people are. And it makes sense to me that they made the law a wholesale ban, rather than just allowing parents who think their kids should be allowed to be browner sign off on it, which strikes me as a big loophole. I guess the next question is as a teenager, should you be allowed to decide for yourself?
You can drive at 16, smoke and drink at 19, vote at 18, work (without requiring parental consent) at 15. What do you think should decide what we’re allowed to do and when? A few European countries allow the purchase of alcohol and/or cigarettes down to 16… The UK has been debating lowering the voting age to 16 for about 10 years now, and BC has been considering the same. Then again, voting has never been proven to give you cancer.
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Down in the US, where tanning beds are classified as a “Class 1 medical device” and officially labelled as “safe”, there’s debate as well. A county down in New York banned tanning beds for kids under 16, and allowed with parental consent for 17-18′s… to which one legislator made the fantastically quotable (but perhaps overly simplistic) statement “So a teenager can have an abortion but not get a tan without her parent’s consent?” Putting the need for abortions in the same box with the need for a tan is probably not the best idea… Especially since you could also get a tan out in the sun or, heck, out of a tube if you wanted to.
So let’s hear it… What would you like to see happen with laws like these? I’ve finally changed the poll to match the topic. Have a good week, everyone.
