Health organizations are calling on the Assembly to pass a bill that would ban the use of indoor tanning beds by anyone under the age of 18. The State Senate has already passed its version of the measure. If the Assembly does not pass it Monday it will die with the end of this legislative session and have to be re-introduced and sent through the committee process again in both houses. The bill is not yet on the Assembly’s board list for Monday.

“Indoor tanning is totally unnecessary and potentially deadly,” says Blair Horner, vice president with the American Cancer Society. “In their quest for a glowing tan teenagers are increasing their risk of skin cancer. This is about kids being exposed to a carcinogen that may cost them their lives.”

21-year-old Allison Gough of Middletown who says she started using tanning beds when she was 14 was diagnosed with melanoma last year. She is nine months cancer-free. Allison says, “Tanning beds are not safe for anyone, let alone kids and I have the scars to prove this……….I thought I was invincible.”

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