(TV Hidden Camera) Tanning salons, busted breaking the rules... Exposing young people

[Ezliving_Jim]

Tanning Investigation: 4 Your Health

Shelley Walcott

Tanning salons, busted breaking the rules... Exposing young people to potentially dangerous radiation.

Today's TMJ 4 investigated.

A million people will get skin cancer this year. Many cases blamed on exposure to ultraviolet rays... The same rays you get in a tanning bed.
There are rules to keep kids away from tanning beds. But we found those rules, being ignored.

For many teenagers... A perfect tan is the ideal look. But they can't hit the beach right now. So they hit the tanning bed instead.

Kristin Harwood started tanning when she was only 15... Going five times a week. "It was kind of trendy, everyone does it... And a lot of times you feel like you look better with a tan," she told us.

But when you look at Kristin's skin now, it's far from perfect. The 23-year old has skin damage on her face, chest and shoulders. And she's scared for her future. "Something I look back on now is the risk of skin cancer. I hadn't previously thought about it too much because I figured it could never happen to me. Now i'm definitely worried about it."

Dermatologists are worried too. They say they're seeing a lot of young people with skin that's older than it should be.

Tanning is a 5 billion dollar a year industry. The state of Wisconsin regulates that no one under the age of 16 is allowed to use a tanning device, not even with parental consent. But we discovered, not all salons are strictly enforcing that law.

Armed with a hidden camera, 15-year-old Jackie visited three tanning salons to see if she'd be allowed in.
The first one... Karlberg tan in Franklin.

He asked if she was older than 18. When she admitted she wasn't he told her she'd need a parent. Karlberg followed the rules.

Lectric Beach Tanning Club can't say the same.

After realizing she was under the legal age to tan, the counter clerk said he would lie about Jackie's age. "You have to be 16 in order to tan in Wisconsin... So let's say you were born in 1990. That will be our secret."

We confronted him about that "little secret."

He slipped into a hallway closet... And didn't come back out.

The vice president of Lectric Beach says this was an isolated incident. "Lectric Beach Tanning Club does not condone underage tanning," he told us.

At Tropics Tanning in Saint Francis, the clerk initially turned Jackie down.
"You're only 15. You have to be 16 to tan," he told her.

Then, she changed her mind... Saying the computer approved her application.
Her position changed again, when we confronted her.

"Do you ever let anyone under 16 in here?" we asked.

"No, I've never had this happen before. So, no."

The owner of Tropics Tanning says his employee simply didn't finish the computer transaction. That Jackie would have never made it past the front desk.

"Maybe she should have been quicker, but the fact of the matter is, she didn't tan," the owner said.

Dermatologists like Doctor Larson hope tanning salons won't allow kids to expose themselves to dangerous UV rays too soon. "I would tell them not to use a tanning bed," he said.

And people who have experienced the consequences of tanning too young, are *begging* teens to stay away.

There are alternatives to tanning.

Dermatologists recommend things like spray on tans, or tan towels, where you just rub color on.

Anything... That doesn't expose your skin to ultraviolent rays... And ultimately skin cancer.

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