"We must do better to protect our teenagers from Cancer"
In a culture that worships everything beautiful, from pencil thin models to starlets strolling down the red carpet, it is no surprise that many teenage girls across the country are drawn to indoor tanning.
This $5 billion dollar a year industry draws them in with sophisticated and targeted advertising. Once in the door, they are barraged by insidious package deals (incentivizing them to bake everyday). Are they warned of the risk of skin cancer, including its deadliest form: melanoma?
Not a chance.
“The Indoor Tanning Association (ITA) has turned the truth on its head”.
They accuse the American Academy of Dermatologists (AAD) and its members of being liars and grossly overstating the risk of cancer to scare patients to their offices. The ITA prepares and distributes literature directed at teens extolling the health benefits of indoor tanning. (Why care about cancer when you can get a little Vitamin D). That position is completely contrary to decades of peer reviewed and respected medical studies linking indoor tanning to skin cancer. Indeed, the World Health Organization has called for a complete prohibition against minors engaging in indoor tanning.
Diana Schafer, 24 was one of those targeted teens. She started indoor tanning at age 14. She was told it was safe as long as she wore protective glasses and waited 24 hours between visits. She soon began going everyday, despite warnings from her mother to stop. “I always thought I was not tan enough”. After eight years of using tanning beds Diana was diagnosed with melanoma.
Where is the government? Who is going to protect the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of Dianas across the country? The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general have been silenced and outmaneuvered by the powerful and politically savvy ITA.
Enough is enough. We are talking about the health of our teens. Protection requires that victims and potential victims come forward and with experienced counsel file lawsuits to put an end to the shameless practices of this industry.