Danville, VA - Does your teen go tanning? The American Academy of Pediatrics wants teenagers to be banned from tanning salons to reduce their risk of skin cancer. In Virginia, you need parental consent to go tanning if you’re 15 or younger.
Steven Broach, owner of Summertime Tanning, says there have been some young people who have tried to lie about their age to get a tan.
He says he follows the law and gets permission every six months from parents who allow their children to go tanning, but he says most of his clients are older. Broach says he understands why doctors would want to ban teenagers from tanning.
“I don’t have a problem with them tanning, I have the problem with them over tanning,” he said. “A lot of kids come in here and want to tan more than once and I know some of them in fact go between the tanning stores in town and that’s not good.”
He says he doesn’t want to see teenagers get sick.
“A lot of the kids today the thing is I got to look fabulous. It’s all about the way you look and everything else like that and they don’t take in consideration the long term effects,” said Broach.
Dr. Saria Saccocio with Danville Regional Medical Center says tanning is dangerous for everyone, but especially for young people.
“When you magnify and concentrate those harmful UV rays to our young children, our teenagers, with very young skin, you change the course of their life forever,” she said.
While they may not get melanoma in their teenage years, she says tanning that early on, increases their risk when they get older. As time goes on, Dr. Saccocio expects to see more young adults diagnosed with melanoma.
“Melanoma invades other parts of the body and often times by the time you find it, it’s just a little mark on the body. It can have spread throughout,” said Dr. Saccocio. “Having a bronze skin is just not worth the risk of dying from cancer.”
