At this point we can probably all agree that, like smoking, visiting a tanning salon is probably not the healthiest of ways to spend a few hours. Hence the attempts by officials to tax Snooki's favorite pasttime heavily and pushes to make the habit flat-out illegal for minors. The latter option got more support this week when the American Academy of Pediatrics joined a growing list of medical groups (including the World Health Organization and the American Cancer Society) calling for a ban on tanning for those under 18.
"There are more tanning facilities in the U.S. than there are Starbucks or McDonald's," explained Dr. Sophie J. Balk, who helped write the new statement for the AAP. "More than a million visits are made every day." According to the American Cancer Society, individuals who tan indoors before the age of 30 increase their risk for melanoma by 75%. Another study showed that between 1998 and 2008, teen use of tanning beds rose from 1% to 27%.
Currently in New York children under 14 are not allowed to use tanning beds at all, and those between 14 and 18 can only do so with their parent's consent. The problem is, as anyone who ever forged their parents name knows, faking a consent isn't that hard of a thing when you really want your skin to have the complexion of tree bark.
