Melanoma is an epidemic among our young people. What used to be an older person’s disease is now the second-highest cause of cancer for ages 15-39. With tanning bed usage before age 30, the risk of melanoma increases 75 percent.

The World Health Organization classifies the ultraviolet radiation from tanning beds as one of the strongest carcinogens. This is a scary disease.

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We restrict minors from tobacco and alcohol until an age where they are better informed and can make better decisions. We should do so with indoor tanning. Tobacco usage does not kill until much later in life; indoor tanning kills at early ages, just as people are beginning families.

What about the argument that it’s the parent’s right to decide? As a parent and melanoma skin cancer survivor, I was totally uneducated about the seriousness until I was well into treatment.

Why do children tan? To be attractive, to fit advertising’s seductive images. At the Utah Senate committee hearing on the bill to ban underage tanning, there were absolutely beautiful young women melanoma survivors who proved you do not need a tan to be beautiful.

Legislators, stop this madness. Pass Senate Bill 41, Regulation of Tanning Facilities.

Robert J. Weir

Sandy