New York weighs ban on indoor tans for kids as cancer risk

ALBANY -- Jennifer Sullivan fought with her parents about her sun worshipping habits. She had freckly Irish skin but loved to look bronzed. She sunbathed and went to tanning salons to achieve her goal.

"I was young and I thought I knew it all," Sullivan said.

Sullivan regrets it now. The Buffalo native is 35 and recovering from multiple surgeries to remove skin melanomas on her back and stomach. On Tuesday, she spoke at a news conference called by the American Cancer Society and several supporters to promote a bill that would ban children under 18 from indoor tanning.

The ban would help parents win arguments about tanning with their teens, Sullivan said.

New York is one of 11 states considering a ban on indoor tanning for children. Currently, New York prohibits children under 14 from indoor tanning but allows teenagers 14 to 18 to tan with written permission from a parent.

Several recent studies indicate that sun beds increase the risk of skin cancer in people age 15 to 29. An Australian study published earlier this month said the younger someone starts indoor tanning the greater the risk of skin cancer, and the danger increases for people who have more than 10 tanning sessions.

Meanwhile, cases of melanoma -- the deadliest form of skin cancer -- are rising among young women. The National Cancer Institute in 2008 found that the rate rose more than 50 percent for women age 15 to 29 between 1973 and 2004. That study did not address the cause of the increase.

A healthy dose of sun -- whether real or artificial -- helps build the body's vitamin D supply and has cancer fighting benefits, said Martin Tenniswood, a professor at the University at Albany School of Public Health's cancer research center, but he said there is no good evidence that a teenager's vitamin D levels influences cancer later in life.

For teens, "I think the risk of developing melanoma outweigh the benefits," Tenniswood said in a telephone interview.

Advocates for indoor tanning say there is no scientific consensus about the link between skin cancer and sun lamps.

John Overstreet, spokesman for Washington DC-based Indoor Tanning Association, said sun burns may cause cancer but a tan may protect people from cancer.

If this ban were to pass in New York, Overstreet said 16-year-olds would be able to shoot guns, drive cars, get married with their parent's permission and have children.

"But you wouldn't be able to get a suntan (indoors) even if your mom or dad signed a release," he said. "It's a crazy intrusion of government into our lives."