Parental consent mandate aims to decrease cancer rates

The price of fashion is always rising — the trendy clothes, the designer bags and the fake tan.

And with more increasingly solid research, there may be additional hurdles to jump in order to
receive all these supposed necessities, specifically the tan.

Missouri passed a law mandating parental consent for anyone 17 or under looking to bake under the tanning salon’s rays on Tuesday.

“I think it’s super,” said senior nursing student, Bridget Divane.“I think indoor tanning has a lot of hidden risks and this would safeguard minors who are only thinking of the short term benefits without considering the long term health risks”.

Missouri was one of the few states that does not require permission from parents to tan. The
legislation passed without much dispute, although Missouri legislature has refused parental consent bills that included minimum age requirements for the past three years. The law was approved after lawmakers removed the stipulation that banned people under 15 from indoor tanning.

What made voting this year different was the new research that was released by the Mayo clinic. The study showed that the rate of first-time diagnoses of melanoma, a dangerous skin cancer, in women ages 18-39 was eight times higher in 2009 than in 1970. The increase in men of the same age was only about half that of women.

The spike in melanoma cases can be equated to the steady rise of tanning beds in the past 40 years. Another reason tanning beds are receiving the blame is due to the gender specificity of the research. Women are much more likely to use tanning beds regularly, which is why the statistic concerning women is much steeper.

In addition, The American Cancer Society estimates that about 76,000 new cases of melanoma will be diagnosed in the U.S. this year, with about 9,000 deaths.

Many supporters of the bill are saying that parental permission is completely
reasonable, especially since it is already a state that requires permission for other actions like
abortions.

However, the effect of the bill will have is unknown.

Many tanning salons already practice the act of signed parental consent. Even though the state does not mandate this action, one would be hard pressed to find a salon that does not require parental consent for minors. This is a way for the salon to protect itself from future lawsuits and negative exposure.

Also, many young tanners are classified as “event tanners.” This means they are not regular
tanners but instead only tan for special occasions, including dances and vacations. Considering this and the typical salon already requiring consent, some may believe the bill to be counter-intuitive.

Some oppose the bill because they believe it is too invasive of individual parents. This bill implies that parents who sign off for their children to tan are knowingly harming their child. Those against it say that it is not the government’s job to mandate how parents choose to raise their own kids. In the U.S., 31 states already regulate the use of tanning facilities by minors. Only one, California, actually banned the use of tanning beds for anyone under the age of 18 — regardless of parental consent.