The myth of the 'healthy tan'

If you can tax tobacco, you can tax a tan.

Both are legal. Both are personal indulgences.

And both have been proven to cause cancer.

Tanning beds should be discouraged — if not outlawed. That's the reason the new health care reform law pins a 10 percent tax increase on tanning beds. The idea is to hit teens where it hurts the most — in the wallet.

The tax will take effect on July 1 and is expected to bring in $2.7 billion over the next decade.

The usual suspects are crying foul, of course. Tanning salons are pointing to potential job losses. They claim Botox is even more dangerous, but it sidestepped a tax.

Nevertheless — as with tobacco — it's difficult to argue with science. The facts have been floating about for years. People under 30 who use tanning machines bump their risk of skin cancer up 75 percent. And melanoma rates among young women nearly tripled between 1973 and 2004. Such alarming numbers have prompted consumer groups and the government to go after the tanning industry for making false safety claims.

People tend to know the truth about this when they hear it. The Utah Legislature has passed laws mandating that parents be involved when teens tan. And a new Food and Drug Administration recommendation flirts with idea of banning tanning bed use among teens altogether. And according to USA Today, the FDA also wants tanning machines changed from Class I medical devices (think elastic bandages) to Class II.

All in all, of course, rules and regulations can go only so far. The important thing is that society embraces reality and stops seeing people with George Hamilton tans as "healthy" and "sexy" and starts seeing them as "clueless" and "self-destructive."

That is what happened with tobacco. Once seen as an obligatory prop for sophisticated folks, the cigarette now has reclaimed its old nickname — the coffin nail.

When tanning beds become known as "living coffins" or "toaster ovens," society will know it has turned a corner.

Until then, it is important to keep the heat up on the tanning industry.