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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 In the study, data collectors posing 15-year-old girls called 3,647 tanning businesses across the United States and told them they were fair-skinned and had never tanned before.
About 87 percent of tanning salon operators told the girls they needed parental consent, including nearly 93 percent of those in states with parental consent laws and 78 percent of those in states without such laws.
Although about 11 percent of the facilities limited teens to the FDA-recommended three or fewer sessions the first week, 71 percent of facilities said teens could tan every day if they wished.
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While tanning bed operators said they would require parental consent, Dr. David Fisher, director of the melanoma program at Massachusetts General Hospital, said he wondered if staff at tanning salons actually followed through on that when presented with a paying customer.
"They may be underestimating just how bad this really is," Fisher said. "The concern I have is that in real life, a 15-year-old, fair-skinned girl is not going say 'Hello, I'm fair-skinned. Do you require my parent's permission? They may say, 'Hi, can I get a tan? I'm 19.'"
In July, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer put tanning beds in its highest cancer risk category -- "carcinogenic to humans." The international panel also called for tougher warnings and restrictions on tanning bed use.
"We probably know more about the identity of the culprit in melanoma than any other cancer in the world," Fisher said. "We should have the steepest decline of any cancer, and in fact we have the steepest increase of any cancer. It's enormously embarrassing and frustrating."
In another study in the September issue of Archives of Dermatology, researchers from University of Colorado found that tanning is associated with a proliferation of nevi, or moles and other skin discolorations, in non redheaded, very fair-skinned children.
Multiple benign or atypical nevi are a strong risk factor for the development of melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer.
More information
The National Conference of State Legislatures has a state-by-state guide to tanning bed rules for minors.
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