It’s been three years since an advisory committee convened by the US Food and Drug Administration recommended that teens be barred from tanning salons or at least obtain parental consent — and now the FDA is finally moving to toughen its rules on tanning beds.
Instead of prohibiting teens from tanning in salons, the FDA is proposing to slap warning labels on the sun lamps stating that young people should not use the devices.
“It provides a warning on the consequences,” the FDA said, namely that “there is a 75 percent increase in the risk of melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer,” in those who have used a tanning bed once, and that risk rises with each use.
That’s likely because the doses of UV rays emitted from tanning units may be to 10 to 15 times higher than that of the midday summer sun, according to the FDA.
Read the rest of this article on Boston Globe: FDA plans warning labels for tanning beds
