The state House has approved a bill to require anyone under 17 to have written parental permission to use a tanning bed.
Representative Gary Cross (R-Lee’s Summit) sponsored the tanning bed legislation, HB 47. (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
HB 47 would require a parent to go to a facility with a tanning bed annually and sign a form saying he or she understands that tanning beds pose a risk of causing cancer, in order for his or her child to use them.
Some Republicans opposed the bill, saying it goes against party philosophies of smaller government and not adding to regulations for small businesses. One of them, Representative Denny Hoskins (R-Warrensburg), says there is a bigger cause of skin cancer than tanning beds: the sun.
“Are we going to go on and make our parents sign parental consent forms to be outside in the public pool under the biggest carcinogen of all time, the sun, for an extended amount of time?
Representative doctor Keith Frederick (R-Rolla) says the bill is a measured response to a danger.
“The effects of ultraviolet radiation in these concentrated doses may not be known for many years, but it does still have an effect and it does still cause cancer and it is avoidable, unlike exposure to the sun.”
The legislation now goes to the Senate.
