No more fake bakes for Cali minors

So if you haven’t heard the news, California has now banned the use of tanning beds for anyone under the age of eighteen.

Personally, I think this is great, although I’ll admit right up front that I’m biased — those ultraviolet-coffins scare the pants off me.  But personal experience aside, tanning beds are reeeally bad for you. Yet people sometimes don’t think about the risk, especially when your fave going-out dress exposes your super pale legs– ew! Still, though, better to be ghostly now than to be an actual ghost (like dead) before you’re 50. Cancer, anyone?

Plus, although this might seem kinda crazy at first, it makes sense if you think about it. Smoking is banned for minors because it’s dangerous and cancer-causing, so tanning should probably have similar regulations.

I can definitely see the other side of the story, though. Why does the government get to tell us what to do with, or to, our bodies? It could get over-encroachy if it’s taken too far. There are a lot of carcinogens that we interact with every day, and it would be impossible and inconvenient to ban them all. Still, though, skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States, and according to skincancer.org, tanning indoors increases your liklihood of developing skin cancer by 74 percent. It’s a scary statistic.

Hopefully, this ban will hit home, and teens will stop baking themselves in the name of beauty. I mean, you have your whole life to have aged-looking skin, like when you actually age. However, I can see people getting around the law pretty easily. After all, the sun is still readily available– and free. And in California, where winters like Chicago’s are practically a fairytale, what’s to stop these young’uns from taking their bikinis and getting melanoma the old fashioned way?
California is the first state to ban the use of tanning beds for anyone under 18, but other places in the US, like certain counties, have already gotten their foot in the door with bans of their own.

So what do you think? Yay or nay on the tanning-bed-ban? I’m interested to hear both sides of the argument, especially if you’re a frequent tanner.

About Dee Modrowski

(Production Director) I'm a double major in English and Creative Writing with an Italian minor and a death wish. I enjoy obsessing over TV shows and long walks on the beach. When I'm not doing those things, you can find me lurking in the production studio making commercials and stuff.

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