Council member wants to protect teens from tanning salons

Last week City Council dealt with zoning issues and discussed looming school closures, but on Thursday the legislative body takes on a new controversial issue: tanning beds.

The indoor-tanning industry has come under fire recently after the American Suntanning Association tried to dispute that tanning raises the risk of skin cancer.

To make indoor tanning aficionados aware of the risks, Councilman Bill Greenlee will introduce a bill Thursday that would place restrictions on the use of tanning salons by minors by requiring that they be accompanied by a parent. Minors under 14 are prohibited from indoor tanning unless they have a doctor's note. Operators must provide customers with information detailing health risks. The city's health department would be tasked with ensuring that operators are compliant.

"The chance of cancer tremendously increases with the exposure to tanning salons," said Greenlee, adding that teenage girls in particular frequent these salons. "It's just like when they tell you, you shouldn't get too much sun . . . Well this is intense sun, the equivalent of intense sun in a relatively short period of time."

Philadelphia has 83 tanning salons, roughly twice the amount of other large U.S. cities according to CITY 100, a research project on tanning salons.

"There's health effects when you go in and burn, not tan," said Dan Bouikidis, owner of three tanning salons, including MegaSun, in Center City. "Are [Council members] gonna do anything when people go to the pool?" Bouikidis said he has no problems with Greenlee's bill and added he already requires minors under 16 to have parental consent.

California, Vermont, New York and Chicago have banned minors from indoor tanning and at least 30 states have passed laws limiting teens from tanning indoors.