New Scottish calls for tanning salon licensing

Health experts and politicians have renewed calls on the Scottish Executive to require tanning salons to be licensed and regulated.

A bill privately introduced to the Scottish Executive by MSP Ken Macintosh calling for increased regulation and licensing has received widespread backing.

Tanning salons are currently allowed to operate unsupervised, allowing schoolchildren to use them without any restraint.

Previous research has suggested that sunbeds may cause an estimated 100 deaths through skin cancer every year in the UK.

The rate of increase of skin cancer has been particularly high in Scotland, and the disease affects a significantly higher percentage of the population than elsewhere in the UK.

“A licensing scheme would aim to prevent children and teenagers from using sunbeds and to phase out all coin-operated, unmanned sunbeds,” said Sara Hiom of Cancer Research UK.

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