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Recently, the free to air tv program. 60 Minutes, aired a very heartbreaking story of a young woman who was dying from a cancer called Melanoma. Melanoma is a malignent tumor, and Australians have a very high incidence of this type of cancer. Education amongst teens in Australia has been heavily based on the dangers of melanoma through sunbaking. Today, many teens, wanting the lovely healthy golden glow have forsaken the beach and it's known dangers and have taken to the tanning salons instead - opting for the use of the tanning beds. The young lady mentioned above was one.

It was her plea to others her age not to discount the dangers associated with tanning beds as they are the same if not higher than sunbaking. Minor's should not be allowed to run the risk of developing skin cancer by the uncontrolled use of products which they assume to be safe. As adults, we have a responsibility to young people to ensure that they are not put at risk. If they go out in the sun, we make sure they have sunscreen - but due to the perception that tanning beds are safe, many intelligent young people, who would not go out in the sun without sunprotection, will subject theirselves to this treatment without any form of protection at all.

The evidence is slowing gathering demonstrating unequivocally that tanning beds are not safe and need to be monitored. So to me this debate has no other solution than to protect our next generation and stop them from participating in potentially harmful activities such as this. We ban minors from smoking because of the risks of lung cancer. I don't see this to be any different.

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