Ont. weighs ban on artificial tanning by youth

Ontario will consider banning minors from using artificial tanning beds following Tuesday's call for such legislation from the Canadian Cancer Society.

Melanoma skin cancer is the second most common cancer among people age 15 to 34, according to the society.

For two years, the society has been calling on the Ontario government to ban the use of artificial tanning equipment by people younger than 18 to reduce their risk of developing skin cancer.

In a study released Tuesday, the group found many artificial tanning sites in the Toronto area were not following Health Canada's voluntary safety guidelines aimed at protecting minors.

When the society sent underage youth and fair-skinned and olive-skinned people to 79 tanning salons, six in 10 failed to ask the age of minors.

"We feel that voluntary guidelines are clearly not working," said Danielle Paterson of the  Canadian Cancer Society. "It's important for the Ontario government to realize that and to realize they need to protect the health of Ontarians and put in place firm legislation."

Only 12 per cent of the facilities had Health Canada's voluntary guidelines posted in an area visible to the researchers, who were not told the study was being done for the society to help keep the results unbiased.

'Important message,' minister says

"They [the cancer society] have an important message that children and youth should exercise extreme caution in using devices like this," said Ontario Health Minister David Caplan.

"This is something that I will take a look at. I'm going to work with my colleagues in the Ministry of Health Promotion as well, and we'll see what can be done."

The researchers also found only one per cent of facilities recommended against tanning for people who always burn and never tan.

The society is also calling for marketing restrictions, mandatory training for staff who run tanning beds and a registry of salons in the province.

For Branca DaCosta, who no longer goes to tanning salons, the findings mirrored her own experience.

"I think most of the people that work there know nothing about how long people are really supposed to be in there," said DaCosta. "I think they just wing it."

The study was conducted by the market research company Youthography in December 2007. The results are considered accurate within 2.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.