Making a fake bake more rare

Alicia Robinson

Young sun worshipers’ access to indoor tanning -- and a large segment

of tanning salons’ business -- is being threatened by a bill moving

through Sacramento.

If the bill -- introduced by 6th District Assemblyman Joe Nation

-- passes, people under 18 would be barred from tanning salons

without a doctor’s prescription. The bill passed the state Assembly

in mid-May, and the Senate Business and Professions Committee will

hold a hearing on the bill June 14.

“We know for a fact that skin cancer occurs in some cases because

of the overexposure to UV radiation in the early years, so this bill

is intended to minimize the exposure to UV radiation of children when

they’re at their most vulnerable,” Nation said.

Medical research has shown the cancer-causing effects of

ultraviolet rays from the sun and tanning lamps, and the incidence of

skin cancer in young people is on the rise, he said.

Not surprisingly, Nation’s bill has some tanning salon operators

burning up.

“A lot of people have the old-school perspective on tanning, and

they are uneducated on how much the indoor tanning industry has

evolved over the last few decades,” said Priscilla Caruso, owner of

Tan Land in Costa Mesa. “Non-tanners sunburn more often than people

who tan indoors.”

Tan Land uses lamps that filter out up to 98% of the ultraviolet

rays that cause burning, and burning poses the biggest risk of skin

damage, she said. Many people use salons to “pre-tan” in a controlled

setting before going out in the sun, and that can decrease the

likelihood that they’ll get burned outside, she said.

Some teenagers like to tan to look good for social occasions such

as prom, said Megan Hanley, 16, a student at Newport Harbor High

School. She goes to tanning salons about once or twice a month

normally and two or three times a week when a special event is coming

up.

“Most of my friends, they like to be tan, and they care about it a

lot,” she said. “I don’t think I go enough to get skin cancer,

because I don’t go every day.”

Dermatologist Kathleen Hutton, who chairs the dermatology

department at Hoag Hospital, vehemently disagrees that salon tanning

is safe and thinks it should be banned for everyone.

The conventional wisdom used to be that it was safe for people to

get a base tan as long as they avoided burning, Hutton said, but

today doctors believe all types of ultraviolet rays can cause cancer.

“Now we know a tan is a bad idea also,” she said.

Assemblyman John Campbell, who represents Newport Beach, voted

against the bill because he thinks it’s a waste of the legislature’s

time and tramples on people’s civil liberties.

“What I think is absurd is that under the law in California, a

minor ... can have an abortion or cosmetic surgery without [their]

parents’ consent,” he said. “How can you argue that getting a tan is

a more serious and invasive procedure than major surgery, but that’s

what this bill basically says.”

Luis Savigne, who manages Tropical Tan in Newport Beach and owns

Huntington Beach salon Destination Tan, said he doesn’t have a lot of

teen customers, but they are a big segment of the market. He said the

proposed tan ban is based on misinformation and will have little

effect on people’s desire to brown themselves.

“I just think they’re really not going to overall accomplish much

even if [the bill] does go through,” Savigne said. “Teenagers are

going to tan no matter what, whether they come to a salon or go

outside.”

Hanley thinks a lot of teenagers will be upset if the bill is

passed.

“I just think that it’s not very smart, because a lot of teenagers

go to tanning salons,” she said. “They’d rather go out looking tan

than go out there all white and get sunburned.”

But Nation said banning minors from tanning salons will encourage

people to be cautious about all tanning, and that’s the point.

“We really need to be more serious about education and the message

about whether tanning is good or bad,” he said.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.