Call to ban under 18s from sunbeds

30 September 2009 09:38am

Under-18s will be banned from using sunbeds in Wales because of the risk of skin cancer, the country's health minister said.

Edwina Hart also outlined plans to ban unstaffed tanning salons after reports that they were being used by children.

Officials in Cardiff are considering all law-making means available to impose the ban, including drawing down new powers from Westminster.

In papers submitted to a cross-party committee at the Welsh Assembly, Mrs Hart said she was convinced the unregulated use of sunbeds was a public health problem.

"I am particularly concerned about the use of sunbeds by people under the age of 18 and by the use of coin-operated sunbeds," she said.

"It is my intention to prohibit the use of sunbeds by persons under 18 years of age and also to ban the operation of unstaffed sunbed salons in Wales."

Sunbed operators in Scotland will be banned from serving under-18s and from running unsupervised salons in November.

Mrs Hart's evidence referred to research that sunbeds could account for about 370 cases of melanoma and 100 deaths a year in the UK.

At an earlier meeting, the Health, Wellbeing and Local Government Committee heard from Jill McRae, whose 14-year-old daughter Kirsty needed oxygen and was put on an intravenous drip when she was taken to hospital with severe burns after 19 minutes on a coin-operated machine.

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