Article: FDA Panel Proposes  Stricter Tanning Bed Regulation

With relatively affordable tanning salons allowing their patrons to don a beautiful-looking shade of skin in a relatively short period of time, it is no wonder that so many people (especially younger women who seek to be noticed) are attracted to them. The indoor tanning business, in fact, has become a roughly $5 billion industry.

Since their inception, however, there have been safety concerns surrounding the use of tanning beds. And evidence of potential health problems, most notably those of the risks for skin cancer and eye injuries, has been mounting. In fact, more than 30 states already had regulations governing tanning salons, including several that require parental consent, when the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decided to take another look at the federal level.

On March 25, 2010, a panel of advisers to the FDA recommended a number of measures to further protect consumers who use tanning beds, including:

• Adding bolder warning labels to tanning beds
• Changing how tanning beds are regulated by the FDA
• Requiring parental consent for those under 18 years of age

Some panel members had even considered recommending an outright ban, but concluded that there was not enough scientific evidence to support it.

Dr. Allan Halpern, vice president of the Skin Cancer Foundation , hopes that the FDA will change the classification of tanning beds to a class II medical devices. Tanning beds are currently classified as class I devices, which makes them subject to few regulations and little oversight.

Halpern argues that both the U.S. government and the World Health Organization (WHO ) recognize UV light as a known cause of cancer, and that tanning beds essentially deliver UV light. A reclassification of tanning beds would allow the FDA to prevent the devices from containing mirrors, which amplify the intensity of UV exposure, limit the levels of radiation the devices emit, and make other changes to their design.

Earlier in 2010, Congress introduced the Tanning Bed Cancer Control Act , which also seeks to put new restrictions on tanning bed use, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charged the Indoor Tanning Association with making false claims about the health benefits of their products.