To the Editor:
Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are the only Canadian provinces that don't currently ban youth from using tanning beds.
Alberta Health Minister Fred Horne says Albertans under the age of 18 should be banned from using tanning beds, but is unsure if a ban will be included in legislation his government plans to introduce in this fall; the details still need to go through a "decision-making process".
Saskatchewan's health minister says he isn't sure what changes will be made, or when they will be implemented. But indicates his government is interested in Manitoba's parental consent laws.
The CCS says parental consent isn't effective and that a survey of teenagers in Saskatchewan indicated many parents took their children to tan and paid for it.
The CCS is also lobbying Manitoba for a youth ban.
Dr Richard Stanwick, past president of the Canadian Paediatric Society says governments should consider entirely banning teens from using tanning beds. "[Of] the one-third of girls who tanned in their last year of school, there were a third of those who tanned with their mother. What we are saying is a mother can't walk into the bar and order her daughter a bottle of wine.
"This is a cancer-causing agent that we believe should be postponed to when someone is an adult."
A 2012 US Senate investigative report notes "despite an increase over the last decade in states requiring some form of parental permission for indoor tanning, researchers have found no measurable decrease in indoor tanning among older adolescent girls."
When will our sun drenched prairie provinces listen to the medical experts and put youth safety before political ideology in order to prevent a preventable cancer? It's time to send a cautionary UV radiation message to residents of all ages.
Linda Jeaurond. melanoma survivor, Victoria BC.
