By signing Senate Bill 746, California Governor Jerry Brown has made his state the first state to ban children under the age of 18 from using indoor tanning beds.
Governor Brown signed the bill into law based on the link between tanning beds and the meteoric rise in the rates of skin cancer, specifically melanoma, among 15-39 year olds.
The bill was co-sponsored by AIM at Melanoma, a foundation dedicated to melanoma research and patient advocacy, as well as the California Society of Dermatology & Dermatological Surgery.
The bill replaces the current law, which required kids between the ages of 14 to 17 to obtain parental permission to use a tanning bed.
Of the Governor's signing the bill, Valerie Guild, president and founder of AIM at Melanoma, had nothing but praise for Governor Brown's decision, saying, "This is a major victory in the fight against melanoma. It is alarming that so many young women are unnecessarily developing melanoma because of a recreational activity."
It is estimated that the use of tanning beds by people under age 20 have double their risk of developing melanoma--one of the biggest cancer-related killers of women between 25 and 30.
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