YOUTH CANCER-PREVENTION BILL MOVES FORWARD TO FULL LEGISLATURE

FDA now warns against tanning bed usage for youth under 18

AUGUSTA–The state’s Health and Human Services Committee voted 7 to 4 to support Democratic State Senator Geoff Gratwick’s bill to reduce the risk of skin cancer in children by prohibiting youth under the age of 18 from using tanning devices.

“We already know that prevention is the best cure,” said State Senator Gratwick, who is also a physician in Bangor. “It is our responsibility as parents and lawmakers to do everything we can to prevent cancer in our children.”

Sen. Gratwick of Bangor

The proposed Maine guidelines are already in force in nine states including California, New Jersey, Texas, Illinois, and Louisiana– all ban tanning beds for minors. In France and Brazil, tanning beds are banned for everyone, regardless of age.

Senator Gratwick sponsored a similar bill last year during the 126th Legislature. The measure received broad support and was passed in both the Senate and the House but was vetoed by Gov. Paul LePage.

Sen. Gratwick added, “Melanoma is near the top of the list of cancers you don’t want to have. It is medically proven that when young people tan, they are more likely to be afflicted with an extremely difficult to treat and often deadly form of skin cancer.”

According to medical studies, even small amounts of UV radiation from tanning beds can increase the risk of developing melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer, by 75 percent for children under the age of 25. In the United States, melanoma is the most common form of cancer in women under 30, with one American dying every hour from this disease.

In May 2014, the federal Food and Drug Administration reclassified tanning devices so that manufacturers now have to include a visible black box warning that people younger than 18 years old should not use the devices.

The bill, LD 123, “An Act to Reduce Youth Cancer,” received widespread support from doctors, cancer patients, and health advocates, including the Maine Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Cancer Society, the Melanoma Foundation of New England, the Maine Dermatological Society, the Maine Public Health Association, and the Maine Osteopathic Society during the public hearing.

The measure will now go to the Senate for a vote.

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