Australian indoor tan ban moving to 30 and including skin type 2

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/radiation/radiationpubs.htm

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/radiation/radiationpubs.htm

I urge everyone who wants to see changes in their own indoor tanning laws to write in and support this initiative; I know from first hand experience that Australia is referenced when other areas are struggling to make changes. For example, in Canada, the federally funded Canadian Partnership Against Cancer recently commissioned a study titled The Economic Burden of Skin Cancer in Canada.  http://www.partnershipagainstcancer.ca/wp-content/uploads/Economic-Burden-of-Skin-Cancer-in-Canada-Report-Final1.pdf   In it the long established (and aggressive) Australian SunSmart program was used to calculate cost savings. The direct and indirect costs avoided during a twenty eight-year modelling period were estimated to be two point twelve billion dollars, or 7.8 times the cost of prevention.

For more than a decade the Canadian government has spent tax dollars educating school children about the dangers of ultra violet overexposure. When contacted, the Consumer and Clinical Radiation Protection Bureau advised me their Sunsmart program has sent out some eighteen thousand classroom kits and reached approximately five hundred and fifty thousand students over the years. Clearly education is not enough. It alone is not decreasing the health care burden. Nor the human carnage. It certainly didn’t keep my teens out of the salons; it took their mother's melanoma diagnosis to do that.  

This may sound like a rant and I guess it is, but I believe in putting this stuff here so others who come behind me looking to make changes might find a little extra ammo:) 

thanks, linda (our politicians in Victoria BC vote on tanning bylaws Dec 8th!!) 

Proposed amendments to the Radiation Control Regulation 2003

The New South Wales Government proposes amendments to the Radiation Control Regulation 2003 to strengthen existing controls on the use of ultraviolet tanning units and mitigate the harmful effects associated with the use of commercial UV tanning units used for cosmetic purposes.

The Regulation currently prohibits the use of commercial cosmetic UV tanning units by persons under the age of 18 years and by persons with Skin Photo Type 1, and contains other rules for persons who carry on solaria businesses and persons who operate tanning units.

The Government proposes to strengthen the Regulation by:

• increasing the minimum age at which a person may be allowed to use a commercial cosmetic UV tanning unit to 25 (from 1 April 2011)
• extending the range of persons excluded from using a tanning unit from persons with Skin Photo Type 1 up to Skin Photo Type 2 (from 1 April 2011)
• increasing the minimum age at which a person may be allowed to use a commercial cosmetic UV tanning unit to 30 years (from 1 August 2011).

Announcement by Minister for Climate Change and the Environment.

DECCW is seeking your comments on the proposal.

Please provide any written comments by 21 January 2011 to:
Manager Hazardous Materials and Radiation
Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water
PO Box A290
SYDNEY SOUTH NSW 1232

or email to: [email protected]

All feedback received will be considered and taken into account in the review process. If you have any enquiries regarding the proposal, please contact the radiation line at DECCW on (02) 9995 5959.