FARMINGTON — Davis County parents still have to accompany their teens to tanning salons, after the Davis County Board of Health voted Tuesday to keep its tanning ordinance in place.

The vote came in response to a request from the Davis Chamber of Commerce to soften the ordinance.

The ordinance, which the board enacted in September, states a parent must give permission in person each time a minor wants to use a commercial tanning bed in the county. It requires parents to read information about the potential health effects of ultraviolet radiation.

The chamber's letter, sent Nov. 13, asked the board to consider temporarily allowing parents of minors to sign a permission slip at a tanning facility before a teenager's first visit. The permission slip would then be kept on file at the tanning salon.

The chamber wrote the letter after receiving complaints from tanning operators, including Martin Harder, owner of Harder's Hairport in Sunset.

Harder told the chamber at a recent meeting that he has lost 70 percent to 90 percent of his business since the ordinance was enacted. That decline means he is losing money on tanning beds for which he is still making payments. One of his tanning beds is a brand-new model that cost $12,000.

Harder said he's been very cautious as a tanning-salon operator. He discusses tanning durations with his teenage clients and routinely talks them down when they plan to spend too much time on the tanning bed.

Before the ordinance, Harder required parents come in and sign for their children.

"The way I've run my business is the way it should be regulated," he said. "To have a parent come in on each visit is too much."

Lewis Garrett, director of the Davis County Health Department, said the decline in business at establishments such as Harder's could be from youths who are leaving the county to drive over the border into Weber County, which doesn't have any tanning regulations.

Harder said that after the ordinance passed, he expected to lose most of his teenagers to establishments in Roy, about 5 minutes north of Sunset. But what he wasn't prepared for was losing whole families.

"The vast majority just decided that it was easier to go to Weber County," he said.

But Garrett said the decline could be from parents who have read about tanning's potential health effects and won't allow their children to go to the tanning salons.

"UV radiation is a known carcinogen," Garrett said. "There are no legitimate health benefits (from tanning)."

During Tuesday's meeting, two doctors on the county board of health, Dr. Charles Harpe, who practices internal medicine, and Dr. Warren Butler, who works in family practice, both urged the board to keep the ordinance in place.

"I think it's unfortunate that the other counties that border us haven't taken it quite as seriously," Harpe said.

Butler said he wants Davis County to stand firm.

"I think Davis County should be the sentinel voice," he said. "There is no safe tan."

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