Teen may need to bring parent to tanning salon under proposed Utah law

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah teens would have to be accompanied by their parent or guardian each time they go to a tanning salon, just as if they were going to a doctor, under a proposed law that advanced out of committee Thursday.

After often-emotional testimony from several survivors of melanoma skin cancer, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee voted 4-1 to pass SB41 on to the full Senate.

Proponents told the committee that the measure is needed to combat a high rate of melanoma — the most dangerous form of skin cancer — among Utah teenagers.

But Brian Moser, the owner of tanning salons in Layton and Roy, said the problem needs enforcement, not more laws.

"Because enforcement (of current laws) has not occurred, they want to put into place another law," Moser said.

Since 2007, Utah law has required a parent to sign an annual release form with a tanning salon before a teen may use its services.

Moser said his salons go even further, letting parents note on the form how often a teen may have tanning sessions. His establishments also use computer software that pops up to remind salon operators when a patron is underage, he said. And he requires workers to pass an online, open-book exam on tanning safety, he added.

"The salons that are doing it right should not be penalized by the ones that are not doing it right."

But the sole tanning salon operator was no match to the several experts lined up to testify in favor of the new restrictions.

Dr. Sancy Leachman, a Park City dermatologist specializing in melanoma and other skin cancers, told the committee that 30 percent of frequent tanners are "tanning addicts."

UV light causes an "endogenous opioid release" that acts like taking a drug, Leachman said. "The purpose of this bill, ultimately, is to reduce death from melanoma."

Salt Lake City surgical oncologist, Dr. Robert Andtbacka, told legislators that melanoma was once a disease traditionally seen in older people — men on the face and arms and women on the lower extremities. But it's now the second highest cause of cancer among 15- to 29-year-olds in Utah, he said, and tends to appear throughout the body.