A proposal to tax tanning salons to fund research on skin cancer is dead this year.

HB419 never made it out of the House health committee. Instead, the concept could be studied over the summer. The bill would have raised an estimated $620,000 a year by imposing a 10 percent tax on tanning admission or user fees.

The money would have funded research into melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer that has been linked to artificial tanning.

But some lawmakers wanted more detail on what type of research would be funded and suggested the money be used for education instead. "This is just an open checkbook -- go do research," said Rep. Ronda Rudd Menlove, R-Garland. "We have thousands of young people sitting in tanning beds who don't know what they're doing to their bodies."

Rep. Phil Riesen, D-Salt Lake City, made an impassioned plea to pass the bill. "We need the research on this disease to try to come up with some answers to keep from killing our citizens. These tanning beds are dangerous."

-- Heather May