Youth in Alberta will no longer be able to use indoor tanning beds after the provincial government passed a new bill that bans salons from offering the service to anyone under the age of 18.
The Skin Cancer Prevention Act, which was passed on March 25, will soon make it illegal for tanning salons to tan minors or advertise to them and will require new health warnings to be included onsite and on all advertising materials.
Dr. James Talbot, Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, said the goal with the new legislation is to hopefully prevent potentially fatal skin cancer in more Albertans.
“The evidence is clear that people who use tanning equipment dramatically increase their risk of developing melanoma skin cancer at some point in their lives, and this is especially true for youth,” he said. “From a public health perspective, this legislation will significantly protect young people from the risks of artificial tanning.”
According to Alberta Health Services, using tanning equipment before the age of 35 increases the risk of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, by 59 per cent, and it is expected that 1,050 Canadians will die from the disease this year.
The legislation has been in the works for several years, and Alberta is one of the last provinces to restrict youth tanning in some form, with Saskatchewan being the last remaining province without legislation. Sarah Hawkins, public policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society said they’ve been working closely with the government and are relieved to finally see the petition in place.
“We're thrilled to see it pass, we’ve been working with the government on this issue for many years, we know that it's really important so we're happy to see it finally come through,” she said.
“I don’t know why the government took so long. I can tell you they did a really diligent job at looking at all the evidence, we weren't displeased with the procedure they went through, it just took a little longer that we were hoping.”
While the Society would like to see indoor tanning eliminated completely, she said it was especially important to target minors first.
“When it comes to cancers, you have to realize the way they work is a cell gets damaged and it’s the replication of that cell that develops into tumors, develops into cancers,” she said. “So young people, when they have cells that are damaged early, there’s that much more chance as the cells continue to replicate that they're going to replicate into a cancer.”
Local tanning salons in Okotoks are on board with the new legislation as well. Andy Lam, owner of iTan 360 said the new laws are only going to effect a small portion of his business.
“I’m totally for it, only five per cent of my data base is under 18,” he said.
The only concern Lam said he had was in terms of staffing, as a number of his employees are minors.
“I have a few high school kids, so my biggest concern will be staffing,” he said. “I hope they still allow underage to work but not tanning, and then I can monitor it on this end. But if they don't allow them to work then that's an issue for me.”
An Alberta Health official confirmed that the new rules would not effect youths who work at tanning salons, as many of the businesses offer other services such as UV-free options. Lam said since the new legislation doesn’t restrict it, he’s planning to further promote spray tanning to his under 18 clients as an alternative.
“We can advertise the sunless products, the spray tan,” he said. “We tan the Irish dance group and the cheerleading team from the school, a few of them come in, a lot of them tan for grad. It's an alternative solution for them so that might increase my business on that end.”
But Lam said he’s still expecting to have some unhappy customers. He said a number of youth tanners who do come in are accompanied by a parent looking to prepare their child ahead of a family vacation. Lam said he would have preferred if the Alberta government had followed in Manitoba’s footsteps and introduced a parental consent model for under-18s.
“I prefer that, because I’m not going to tell a mother or father how to raise their kid, right?” Lam said. “We'd rather we monitor them, let them tan a few sessions before they go away, that's prevention. Tanning doesn't give you cancer, a burn gives you cancer.”
