Recently, five female college students posed as 15-year-old girls in need of tans. They called 3,647 tanning salons, day spas and beauty salons in 116 U.S. cities to inquire about regulations. They asked:
If they would need written permission from their parents
If their parents would need to accompany them
How many times they could tan during the first week
AZCentral.com reports that the undercover phone survey was orchestrated by California, Minnesota and Rhode Island researchers who wanted to assess how well businesses complied with laws and federal guidelines regarding exposure to UV radiation.
At the time of the survey, only 20 states required teens to obtain parental consent and two states required parents to accompany teens. Here are some of the survey findings:
- 87 percent of facilities surveyed told the callers they would need written permission
- 14 percent of the tanning providers insisted a parent accompany the teen in order for her to tan
- Of states with parental-consent requirements, Georgia scored the lowest level of compliance was (72.5 percent); Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire and South Carolina all received perfect scores
- 11 percent of all tanning establishments followed the FDA recommendation that new tanners limit their exposure to three tanning sessions in their first week—the average number of sessions allowed during the first week was six
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