Editorial: Young deserve protection from sunbeds

Adults can judge for themselves the dangers of tanning parlours, but let's have a law to stop teenagers from going anywhere near them. Photo / Michael Cunningham

With spring just around the corner, some people's minds may already be turning to acquiring a suntan. Those keen to make a flying start could be contemplating a visit to a solarium. Such people seem, rather like smokers, to be happy to ignore the well-publicised health risks. Some solariums are giving them even less reason for caution by making beguiling claims that time on a sunbed will actually improve their health.

It is timely, therefore, that the Commerce Commission has put these operators "on notice" about making misleading statements over the benefits and risks of sunbed use. The warning follows a complaint from Consumer New Zealand and the Cancer Society. The commission sought the advice of a senior dermatologist, who said the ultraviolet used in sunbeds could lead to cancer. This information was hardly a surprise.

Two years ago, the World Health Organisation's cancer research agency reclassified the ultraviolet radiation produced by sunbeds as carcinogenic, the highest risk category for causing cancer. That aligned sunbeds with tobacco. Solariums in this country continue, however, to operate under a voluntary code. This includes a minimum age of 18, excluding people with fair skin, a ban on advertising tanning equipment as safe or healthy, and an obligation to provide safety information.

The code is a reasonable response to the industry's critics - but only if it is observed. One case where it was ignored, that of a fair-skinned Tauranga woman, Kathryn Wilson, was highlighted in the Herald this week. She was badly burned in a sunbed and, eight years later, was diagnosed with malignant melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. According to surveys by Consumer NZ, such flouting of the code is utterly routine. Given this, the weight of scientific evidence and the country's high rate of melanoma, it is difficult to understand why New Zealand has not followed several of Australia's states in regulating the industry.

The hesitancy of successive governments may even be emboldening some tanning parlour operators. Rather than seeking to minimise the danger of sunbeds, they are claiming the light in modern sunbeds is healthier than natural sunlight. The Commerce Commission has, rightly, shot that down, and told them misleading information could result in heavy fines under the Fair Trading Act. But such a response seems rather tepid, the more so at this time of the year when pressure to use sunbeds goes on some teenagers - the group at the greatest risk of harm.

Much of this is peer-related and difficult to resist. Girls of that age are not, however, well equipped to make a reasoned judgment on the risk they taking. Adults are, and a total ban on solariums, therefore, seems excessive. There is good reason, however, to ban those aged under 18 and those with very fair skin from them. Equally, solarium operators should be required to display prominently information about the dangers of sunbeds, leaving clients in no doubt about the risk they are taking.

About one in 12 New Zealanders uses tanning parlours. The vast majority heed health warnings. The more potently this safety message is conveyed, the more solariums will struggle to survive. Most immediately, however, the young should not be put at risk by being allowed anywhere near a sunbed.