'Growing worry' on sunbed salons

Kirsty McRae suffered burns to 70% of her body in an unstaffed salon

The mother of a teenager who was burned using a sunbed has told members of the Welsh assembly of the experience.

Kirsty McRea, 14, received first degree burns over 70% of her body after visiting an unstaffed tanning salon.

Her mother Jill told an assembly committee she was worried her daughter may have suffered long term damage to her skin.

She was addressing an assembly committee investigating the rules governing tanning salons in Wales.

Kirsty spent 19 minutes on the sunbed and her mother said it took about two weeks for the skin to heal superficially.

"The bigger concern is that the underlying damage may not become evident for many years to come because it was a fairly substantial dose at a very young age," Mrs McRea, from Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, told AMs.

"She lives with the knowledge that she may have done irreparable damage to her skin which may not become evident for years.

"She knows the implications because of the information that is out there now about malignant melanoma and that is something that will be in her mind for many years to come."

Representatives from Cancer Research UK told the committee that under 18s should not be permitted to use sunbeds and she called for unstaffed salons to be banned.

"We think this is a significant problem, it is very concerning," said Sarah Woolnough.

"We would absolutely support action that the assembly would take - we would like to see under 18s stopped (from using sunbed salons)."

'Not convinced'

Kathy Banks, chief executive of the sunbed association, told the committee their members had an age restriction of 16.

But the association was "not convinced" the age limit should be raised to 18 although they were debating the situation.

But she said unstaffed salons were dangerous.

"Children egg each other on, and accidents can happen," she said.

AMs could recommend that ministers ask the UK government for the power to introduce new regulations.

The committee inquiry comes after a number of children received burns following the use of sunbeds.

New rules governing the use of salons and coin-operated machines, including restrictions on under 18s, are due to come into force in Scotland by the end of the year.

If, at the end of the inquiry, the committee feels more regulation is needed, members will make their recommendations to ministers in early autumn.

ISSUES AMs WILL EXAMINE The use of sunbeds by children The overuse of sunbeds The supervision of sunbed users The use of coin-operated machines The monitoring and limiting of sunbed sessions The provision of health risk information at tanning salons The inspection of premises Source: Welsh assembly

They would then need to request more powers from the UK government to bring in regulations via the current licensing frameworks used by local councils.

Darren Millar, chair of the health, wellbeing and local government committee, said before the meeting they would look at examples of how regulation worked both in Scotland and further afield.

"In Australia, for example, they look at skin types. So, for instance, we could decide to have tighter regulations for people with certain skin types that have increased health risks. Or we could look at age restrictions or stopping unsupervised salons," he said.

"It's an important issue that we need to look at properly before we make any decisions.

"There is mounting public concern that ever younger children are regularly using sunbeds which have, in some cases, resulted in severe burns for some users."

Other cases highlighted in Wales include that of 10-year-old Kelly Thompson, from Port Talbot, who had to be treated at a burns unit in Swansea in April after spending 16 minutes on an unsupervised, coin-operated sunbed.