Sunbed use like ‘Russian roulette’ with Irish skin, Dáil told

Using a sunbed is like playing Russian roulette and the odds are stacked against Irish people because of their fairer skin and susceptibility to cancer, a Government backbencher has warned.

Labour TD Kevin Humphreys made the comparison as he highlighted the marketing of tanning booths mainly at young women in their early 20s.

“They come in and get under the sunbeds. They put their skin into an oven, a little like a chicken, and get it burned and 10 or 15 years later they get diagnosed with cancer,” he said.

“Is it really worth it? Is it really worth having a little brown skin or looking well at your debs or wedding day but possibly not living to see your children grow up?” Mr Humphreys, a cancer survivor himself, asked.

The Dublin South-East TD said melanoma cancer was a killer. “Using sunbeds amounts to playing Russian roulette. The odds are stacked against Irish people because we have fairer skin and we are more prone to skin cancer.”

He was speaking during the ongoing debate on the Public Health (Sunbeds) Bill which will ban the use of tanning booths for under 18s and also prohibits operators making health claims for such facilities.

Tanning booth businesses will also have to warn users of the dangers and provide specific eye protection because of the danger to eyesight. Penalties include fines of €4,000 for first offences and six months imprisonment.

Fine Gael TD Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central) said "I wish we could ban sunbeds altogether". He said anyone could set up a tanning salon because there were no regulatory restrictions on the equipment. And he pointed to a 2012 Irish Cancer Society secret shopper survey which showed "seven out of 10 tanning shops would allow a fair-skinned child use a sunbed without any advice or warning".

One TD blamed designer and fashion icon Coco Chanel for popularising tanning in the 1920s. "At that stage the sun was promoted to represent pleasure, relaxation and, obviously, good health," said Fine Gael TD Regina Doherty (Meath East).

People wanted to be brown all the time and that was at the expense of health, resulting in skin cancer, she said. Ms Doherty pointed to "staggering" figures that 140,000 people in Ireland used tanning booths, and 20 per cent of them were aged between 15 and 24.

Fine Gael TD Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South) said what she found most disturbing was “the fact we need this legislation at all”. She was “amazed there are people who are so uninformed that they would expose their children to sunbeds”.

Minister for Health James Reilly however ruled out a total ban on sunbed use because he believed it would simply move the business "underground" to people's homes where sunbed use would be much more difficult if not impossible to supervise, ensure health warnings or protect children.

Such a ban could also be challenged on EU internal market grounds and the industry might seek compensation through the courts for loss of income.