Does your teen use tanning beds?
The government wants to stop teens from using tanning beds! And, they may have good reason to!
The American Academy of Pediatrics is the latest medical group asking lawmakers to bar teens from tanning salons.
In a policy statement released Monday, the AAP called on all levels of government to pass and enforce legislation that would protect teens from the dangers of indoor tanning. The influential pediatrician group says the continued rise in rates of skin cancer — including melanoma, the most serious kind — in adults and young people prompted the recommendation.
The AAP joins a growing list of organizations that want tanning salons to close their doors to teens, including the Ontario Medical Association, the Canadian Cancer Society and the World Health Organization. In 2009, the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified tanning beds as known carcinogens, putting them in the same league as mustard gas, arsenic and plutonium.