MOSAIC STAFF
When Michele, 16, of San Jose went to a tanning salon eight days in a row to even out the farmer’s tan she had gotten from playing softball, she knew her parents wouldn’t approve.
What she didn’t know is that it’s illegal.
California law requires teens between the ages of 14 and 18 to have a written and signed parental consent to tan at a salon.
When a 17-year-old Mosaic staff member visited six tanning salons this week, three of them told her she could get a tan – without parental consent.
As state legislators become more aware of the risks of skin cancer, they’re becoming more aggressive about regulating tanning salons that serve younger customers. But some question whether it makes sense to create new laws when existing ones are not enforced.
Jim DeBoo, chief of staff for Assemblyman Joe Nation, D-San Rafael, said authorities often have no way of finding out whether salons are breaking the law.
by phone would be required to get a tan. At three salons she visited this week, however, this was not the case.
“Are you over 18?” the owner of a salon in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood asked.
When the reporter said no, the owner responded, “It’s OK. You have to be over 16.”
A manager at the Willow Glen salon declined to comment when later informed of the state law, which is designed to protect young people from the documented dangers of tanning.
Skin cancer strikes more than one million Americans every year and kills about 9,000, according to the Web site of the American Cancer Society. About 18 percent of teens spend $20 or more each time they go tanning indoors, according to a survey of 106 girls between the ages of 14 and 22 that was conducted by public affairs group Westin Rinehart.
“We are trying to make people aware of the danger,” DeBoo said. “It can be life-threatening.”
DeBoo helped research a bill that became law late last year. It bans teens 14 and younger from using tanning beds in salons. Salons that violate this law could face a fine of $2,500 a day.
California’s State Board of Education approved a bill recently that was sponsored by state Sen. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, to make sun safety part of elementary school curricula. The bill – inspired by a 25-year-old who died of skin cancer – will go to a Senate committee next.
Michele, the 16-year-old San Jose girl who went to a tanning salon without parental consent, said she did not want to be identified because her parents don’t know she went to a tanning salon. She added that more education on tanning wouldn’t change her mind about it.
Michelle said she realized one evening that she really needed a tan. She was trying on her prom dress — a sleeveless teal gown — for fun when she noticed the contrast between her pale shoulders and her tanned arms.
“I looked in the mirror and wanted to look good in my dress,” she said.