Lieu Legislation to Reduce Skin Cancer Rates Passes Out of Assembly Today

(Sacramento, CA) – AB 105 (Lieu), a bill that would increase the age threshold for teenage tanners from 14 to 18, passed off the Assembly Floor today with bipartisan support.

“There is an unequivocal link between indoor tanning and skin cancer,” said Lieu. “The FDA classifies radiation from indoor tanning devices as a known carcinogen.”

The World Health Organization and the American Academy of Dermatology recommended that no person under the age of 18 use a tanning bed because of the associated increased risk for skin cancer. AB 105 would be the first bill in the nation to implement that recommendation.

During the past three decades, the incidence of melanoma increased by 60 percent among women ages 15-29, in direct correlation with the advent of the tanning industry in the 1970s. It is the number one diagnosed cancer in women aged 25-29.  In addition, it is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the nation, annually accounting for more than 1.3 million new cases and costing billions of dollars to treat.

Under AB 105, persons under the age of 18 would be prohibited from accessing ultraviolet tanning devices and tanning facilities would be restricted from advertising fraudulent or misleading claims stating that indoor tanning has any sort of health benefit.

The tanning industry is evolving in a much healthier direction now where many facilities offer “sunless” tanning devices that currently pose no similar cancer risks to children. Right now teens are offered two tanning choices, a sunless tanning device or s UV bed, AB 105 simply limits teens from using the dangerous UV tanning option. Under AB 105, teens can still walk into a tanning salon and get a tan using a sunless tanning device that does not have the skin cancer risk and is just as widely available