A bill proposed by the Ohio House of Representatives would place further regulations on the tanning industry at — what tanning advocates are saying — a further cost to an industry already targeted by the government.
House Bill 131 would give the Ohio State Board of Cosmetology the power to further regulate the sanitation, training and safety in tanning salons.
The bill would require salons to post signs warning customers of the radiation dangers from tanning beds, prohibit customers from standing too close to tanning beds, require customers to wear protective glasses, and raise the minimum age of persons allowed to use the tanning facilities to 18 unless prescribed by a doctor.
Athens currently has eight tanning salons in the city, none of which responded to repeated calls from The Post.
Currently, Ohioans must have parental consent to use a tanning bed when they are 16 and younger, but many tanning facilities, such as Paradise Beach Tanning in Nelsonville require parental consent for users under 18.
“I think tanning under 18 with parental consent is perfectly appropriate,” Paradise Beach Tanning owner Kaycee Pidcock said in an email. “(HB 131) will take the right away from the parent to decide if their teen may tan.”
The bill comes amid an industry suffering from a 10 percent tanning tax imposed by the federal government’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.
Since that law was enacted, 20 percent of the permit holders on the Ohio State Board of Cosmetology went out of business, James Trakas, the board’s executive director, said in an email.
The increase in salon costs from the 16.75 percent tax is transferred to customers, something that causes prices to go up without a salon making extra money, Pidcock said.
Provisions of the state bill would take business away from 5 to 10 percent of the remaining establishments in Ohio, said Joseph Levy, the scientific adviser for American Suntanning Association.
“In the long run, this leads to the client choosing smaller packages or tanning less, which does affect the salon,” Pidcock said. “The prices at the salon have not been raised in over eight years that I am aware of; however, the clients don’t necessarily realize this because they are being charged more than they were previously.”
One reasoning lawmakers express for drafting the legislation — that tanning beds lead to cancer — is highly disputed, experts have said.
But the claim that tanning beds lead to melanoma is supported by the Ohio State Medical Association, according to a news release from House Bill 131 co-sponser Rep. Michael Stinziano (D-18).
Many of the statistics that proponents of HB 131 are citing do not pertain to tanning salons, but rather tanning beds used for medical purposes, which use higher doses of radiation, Levy said, adding that “this is a complex issue that deserves complex treatments.”
ld311710@ohiou.edu
