New California Law Says You Must Be 18 to Use Tanning Bed: Public Safety or Nanny State Law?
- Posted on October 9, 2011 at 6:22pm by
Christopher Santarelli
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(AP) California girls who dream about the sun-kissed skin glorified in song by Katy Perry will have to wait until they turn 18 before they can get the effect from tanning beds under a new first-in-the-nation law.
Gov. Jerry Brown announced Sunday that he had signed into law a bill that prevents children under 18 from using the popular tanning method. The law takes effect Jan. 1.
Although Texas has banned the use of tanning beds for children under 16, SB746 bill makes California the first state to set a higher age limit. Thirty other states also have some age restrictions on the use, said the bill’s author, state Sen. Ted Lieu.
Under current law, children 14 and under in California already cannot use the beds, but those ages 15 to 17 can do so with permission from their parents. Illinois, New York, Ohio and Rhode Island have considered an age limit similar to California’s, but have yet to enact them, said the Democrat from Torrance, Calif.
The ban will hurt businesses, many of them owned by women, said the Indoor Tanning Association. About 5 percent to 10 percent of its members’ customers are under 18, the industry group noted.
The organization said tanning salons already are regulated by the state Department of Consumer Affairs and the federal Food and Drug Administration – regulations it called the most stringent in the nation.
But Lieu and other ban supporters said the higher age limit is needed because skin damage caused by the type of radiation used in tanning beds often leads to melanoma, which is skin cancer that can be fatal. Lieu said early tanning by children can increase the risk.
They also say that avid tanning is particularly popular in the state, especially in affluent areas of Southern California. Lieu pointed out there are more tanning salons in Los Angeles County than Starbucks coffee shops or McDonald’s fast food restaurants.
“Girls in affluent California communities especially are surrounded by the message that being tanned all year round is cool,” Christina Clarke, of the Cancer Prevention Institute of California, said in a recent statement supporting Lieu’s bill. “Pop music star Katy Perry is even singing about it.”
Lieu also cited a recent Stanford Cancer Institute-backed study that showed higher melanoma rates among girls and young women in areas of higher income.
Supporters said better education was also needed to counter practices that can lead to skin damage and melanoma. The measure was sponsored by the California Society of Dermatology and Dermatological Surgery and the AIM at Melanoma Foundation, and backed by other medical organizations and health insurers.
Lieu, in a statement praising Brown’s decision, called skin cancer “a rising epidemic and the leading cause of cancer death for women between 25 and 29.”
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Comments (102)
cbinflux
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 7:44pmI’m for it, and I would add tattoos! These kids need some boundaries.
Report Post »ForTheRepublic
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 9:23pmthats why god made parents
Report Post »rdietz7
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 9:50pmWho cares if a state sets boundaries like this for teens. I just don‘t want the Fed’s doing it. The great thing about US is that if you have a problem with your state MOVE.
Report Post »Seasoldier
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 10:47pmLet’s see. Kids can have condoms and abortions without parental notification, let alone approval, but they can’t use tanning beds because that might be bad for their health. Got it. Governor Moonbeam hasn’t changed a bit. He’s still a poster boy for the Socialist Culture of Death, and Californians just love him. They deserve what they voted for. Elections have consequences, and sometimes those consequences are deadly, as people like Brown and Obama demonstrate.
Report Post »Nova2395
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 10:52pmFor it……are you kidding me….STOP IT B!!!!! Why should people pay taxes in a state with a law like this. Thats what parents are for. Kids between the ages of 15-17 are allowed to use a tanning bed….WITH PARENTAL PERMISSION!!! GET YOUR @#$% TOGETHER GOVERNOR BROWN. Stop interfering with the parent/child relationship and start focusing on your real job…..repealing the illegal immigrant in-state tuition law that you just signed
Report Post »BlackAce41
Posted on October 10, 2011 at 6:18amThis is too much Government take over the Parents job.
Report Post »jzs
Posted on October 10, 2011 at 1:39pmBeing white, but with tanned skin is a fashion, one this country needs to lose. I imagine it started with people who are outdoors a lot, those people out there playing sand volleyball, having dark tans whatever. I think there’s an association with a tan and being outdoors a lot, being active, exercising, being part of nature or whatever. I think there’s a false association of being tanned with being healthy.
But man is that crap. Exposure to the sun does nothing good for the skin. Besides the cancer risk, your skin is damaged and later in life your skin will be brittle, thin, tear easily, wrinkled and look horrible.
Everybody knows that exposure to the sun in your youth is a recipe for disaster, not only because it multiplies your odds of skin cancer, also because you’ll look like an old hag by the time you reach forty. The thought of teenagers, or anyone, in a tanning salon ought to make you feel like vomiting.
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 7:31pmDoesn’t anyone remember the tax on tanning salons that Obama impossed? I called it the “White Tax” since only white people go to tanning salons.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/24/news/economy/tanning_tax/
It is part of ObamaCare.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The Obama administration is turning up the heat on tanning salons across the country with the passage of its new health care bill.
“To help fund the $940 billion health care overhaul, a 10% tax on individuals receiving indoor tanning services was tacked on, and the initiative is expected to generate $2.7 billion over ten years.”
You do remember this don’t you?
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 8:16pmYou called it a “white tax?”
You must be racist!
Just because it taxes only white people, just because it is the ONLY part of obamacare that started immediately, just because black people do not use tanning beds…
And you have the unmitigated nerve to call it a “white tax.”
Puh-leeze.
Everybody knows, it was a national disaster that had to be immediately addressed.
People were dropping dead like flies in the middle of the grocery store because of tanning beds.
The emergency rooms were flooded with non-paying sunburns.
Welfare rolls were bursting at the seams with tanners who just lie in bed all day.
Schools were spending billions to educate young tanners who only spoke tannish, because they left their salon and illegally entered the U.S.
Prisons were turning criminals loose due to overcrowding of repeat tanners.
THAT’S why obama and brown had to save us from ourselves.
Report Post »A white tax… indeed.
Marengo Ohio Patriot
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 7:28pmto 10th ammend..
Report Post »i absolutely agree.. if you are stupid enough to let your kid use one of these nuclear tubes…..go for it…i will not tell you how to raise your children, and i expect the same… and as for the government….GET THE HELL OUT OF OUR BUSINESS!!!!!
newdaysos
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 7:22pm…and yet we can also thank Gov. Brown that with his other hand he just signed into law that 12-year old girls are mature enough to make the decision to get the HPV vaccine WITHOUT parental consent! I’m speechless.
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 8:25pmSTOP PAYING ATTENTION!
Report Post »Now you’ve gone and told everybody.
How is he supposed to rule over you when you keep watching and listening?
sheesh!
geonj
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 7:18pmthis is a distraction, got you off of talking about illegals getting in state tuition. if they want a tan, get a spray on one.
Report Post »iroquois
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 7:14pmCA has always been a nanny state. Father Brown is the problem.
Report Post »theaveng
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 7:13pmSTEALING AWAY PARENTAL RIGHTS
That’s basically what this is. Pretty soon you won’t need “parents” at all, because the politicians will decide at what age kids can tan themselves. Or buy M-rated games. Or have their first date. Or get their first internet account….. Mom & dad will just be there to clean-up spilled food & provide allowances. Similar to the book 1984.
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 8:28pmCandy bars?
McDonalds?
Ice Cream?
Once we get all those evil vices away from our children, then, we can improve them, we can FORCE them to jog 5 miles a day, to brush and floss 3 times a day, we can force them to be vegans, we can then spread our glorious society to other nations, then, we can RULE THE WORLD !
Report Post »BWA HA HA HA HA !
Fella
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 7:13pmHah, look at all the social conservatives suddenly concerned about liberty! You guys are a riot.
Report Post »theaveng
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 7:15pmI’m a libertarian. I’m not conservative. (If I were I would not have friends who are gay, or taoist (chinese friend), or support treating marijuana the same as hard liquor.)
Report Post »Fella
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 7:18pmYeah, you might be one of the few here that isn’t a complete fraud posting in this thread. I love when these issues come up though. You just compare how these posters contradict themselves almost daily.
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 8:09pm@thea- conservatives cannot have gay friends or chinese or support non-banning of plants?
Report Post »Is that REALLY what you think?
If so, you‘re battin’ 000 here, bud!
Marengo Ohio Patriot
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 7:07pmany bone-head, dumb enough to subject their body to this, should do so based on their own ADULT ok… leave my kid out of it… my kid NEEDS my approval!! o yea…that means…..over 18…..
Report Post »until my kid is OVER 18….. i have EVERY say so of whatever they can and can not do…. GOT IT!!!!! ?????
The10thAmendment
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 7:10pmMaking a tanning bed illegal is akin to making the sun illegal or subject to the laws of man. NONSENSE! If I say it’s okay for my kid to go to a tanning bed as opposed to on a beach, that’s MY business, not some perverted governments.
Report Post »SHOOTnCRASH
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 7:18pmDon’t worry, our teens can still get all the free abortions they want without us ever knowing about it with Browns blessing.
Report Post »The10thAmendment
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 7:20pm@ SHOOTnCRASH
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 7:18pm
Don’t worry, our teens can still get all the free abortions they want without us ever knowing about it with Browns blessing.
Report Post »———————————————————————————————————————————————–
Brown is a sperm burping zipper licker.
freightliner1160
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 7:07pmNow teens have to sunbath in their back yards instead of i a closed in tube. Means the law makers get to look at what the tanning beds deined them.
Report Post »HD Veteran
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 7:05pm. . . but a 13 year old can still get an abortion without parental consent . . . Calif can’t fall in the ocena soon enough.
Report Post »artistskeptic
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 9:02pmAgree !!!!!!
Report Post »flatbroke
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 7:04pmoh so you can tan outside at any age, but no tanning beds till 18? this is sooo liberal common cense!
Report Post »jackricks
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 6:57pmWait, you can have and grow pot, but you can’t tan?
Report Post »citygirl56
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 6:51pmNow if you are old enough to tan, you are old enough to pay the “Obama Caucasian Tax”.
Report Post »Liberalismsamentaldisorder
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 6:48pmBut, you can get an abortion at any age without your parents even knowing.
Report Post »PoliticalJunkieToo
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 6:48pmObama just wants to make sure the Caucasian skin color stays as white as possible so he and Holder can more easily identify them and target them for discrimination.
Report Post »powhatan
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 6:46pmMoon Beam hates Sun beams apparently, but not abortions…
Report Post »angelcat
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 10:43pmExactly! Too young to tan, but not to have an abortion, take birth control pills, or take the morning after pill, all of which also do harm to the body and some of which kill a baby. Liberals mixed-up thinking.
Report Post »KickinBack
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 6:44pmSo the kids just get their tan the old fashioned way. Which supposedly increases the risk of skin cancer. And that leads to higher health care costs. The progressive dream.
Report Post »Chet Hempstead
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 6:42pmI think the current law, banning them for kids under 14 and requiring parental permission for kids under 14 is reasonable and sufficient, and this feels like an overreach. That being said, if these kids really, really want to catch a tan, there’s always the sun. It shines about 300 days a year in Southern California, and there’s no law against lying under it.
Report Post »Chet Hempstead
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 6:47pmOops, I meant “parental permission for kids under 18.”
Report Post »UlyssesP
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 6:39pmThere should be an age limit for the young. Screw the safety concerns, I don’t think anyone wants to see a 12 year old desensitized to the hyper-sexuality of today showing off her new tan like her slutty idols in the media.
Report Post »Adults can be as stupid with their own bodies as they want.
TomFerrari
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 8:37pmand tweens with acne should just take drugs instead of tanning, which clears up much ance?
yep! you need to be in charge of my body. That’s a great idea.
You need to determine how I raise my children. Got it.
Anything else you want to legislate for me?
Perhaps take candy away from my children?
Maybe McDonalds hamburgers?
French fries?
Buttered popcorn?
Maybe you’d like to come watch us and make sure my kids brush and floss 3 times a day?
Or perhaps you could use your infinite wisdom to determine my kids need to be vegans?
NO !
AB-SO-LUTE-LY NOT !
Government needs to GET THE HELL OUT OF OUR LIVES !
Report Post »Other people need to MIND THEIR OWN DAM BUSINESS !
I’m not frying my children, but, if I want to let my 14 yr old go to a tanning bed once a week, that is MY business, NOT YOURS!
YepImaConservative
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 6:36pm[Chorus:]
Report Post »Oh, I‘m bein’ followed by a moonbeam, moonbeam, moonbeam—
Leapin and hoppin’ from a moonbeam, moonbeam, moonbeam—
majorsco
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 6:34pmCalifornia needs to enact one more nanny state law. Gerry Brown, Nancy Pelosi, and other “old” polititicians need to be sent to a “home” for the inane.
Report Post »cassandra
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 6:34pmliberals are such hypocrates they want to ban teenagers from tanning but go ahead and have an abortion with-out your parents consent
Report Post »kickagrandma
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 6:41pmEggsaxtlee
Report Post »manster35
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 6:28pmPlease tell me more of what I can and cannot do. I need the government in my life or I would be totally lost. Give me a break. The left is out of control.
Report Post »Fella
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 7:35pmYou sure it’s only the left doing this? lol take your blinders off, son.
Report Post »kickagrandma
Posted on October 9, 2011 at 6:25pmOut jerry, nancy, barbara and others in the tanning beds and lock them shut!
They are all over 21, right?
Report Post »