Editorial: Banning sunbeds sensible

IGO out in the sun so rarely that when my partner's workmates refer to me as Her Indoors it is literally true.

Fake tan is my friend. Not only do I dislike the heat but want to minimise risk of skin cancer. I wish I had known the risks of sunbeds when I was younger as I did use them occasionally. Now the damage that sunbeds can cause to skin is well known, but cancer and developing the skin of a 60-year-old is not putting off young Tauranga girls from using sunbeds, Sonya Bateson reported yesterday.

Despite the dangers of sunbeds, the industry is not regulated. Attempts to make them safer with voluntary industry safety requirements do not seem to be working. A Consumer NZ report showed two-thirds of sunbed operators surveyed nationwide failed to meet voluntary industry safety requirements.

In Tauranga, of four operators surveyed, three scored perfect or near perfect results but one, Global Fitness, met only two of the five safety requirements.

Tauranga's Skin Spots Skin Cancer Clinic director Franz Strydom is calling for a ban or at least for them to be regulated in the same way as other medicines.

New Zealand and Australia have the world's highest rates of melanoma. It has been reported that more than 90 per cent of melanomas were caused by UV exposure from the sun or sunbeds. Even with sun protection products, one cannot avoid sun exposure completely. But you can avoid sunbeds.

In Sonya Bateson's report Tauranga MP Simon Bridges said he did not support a ban as adults could make their own decisions. But as with smokers, heavy drinkers and drink-drivers, some adults knowingly risk their own health and that of others.

While it is adults' decision to use a sunbed, treatment for potential sunbed-related melanomas are funded by the taxpayer.

In Australia many states are banning sunbeds. A blanket ban is expected in the country.

In Auckland a council bylaw requires all commercial sunbed businesses to be licensed. Auckland businesses are required to comply with the code of practice which includes restricting the treatment to people 18 years and over.

Tauranga Council could follow Auckland's example of the licensing bylaw. Better, The New Zealand Government needs to follow Australia in this move and ban sunbeds altogether.