Sunbed use 'should be regulated like tobacco'

Sunbeds are to blame for 370 cases of melanoma and 100 deaths each year, experts said.

The Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment said in a report that sunbeds were a serious and growing public health problem that needed to be brought under control in the same way as smoking. It said sunbed operators should be properly regulated, licensed and inspected and called for a ban on the use of sunbeds and tanning salons by under-18s. They also want unsupervised or coin-operated sunbeds to be banned completely.

The number of commercial tanning salons operating in the UK is unknown. The report said there was evidence that many children used sunbeds and the machines were more powerful and potentially more dangerous than they used to be. Older sunbeds produce about 1 per cent ultraviolet radiation but modern machines produce from 2 to 4 per cent and generate radiation similar to sunlight.