State and local regulations are key elements to keeping the indoor tanning industry running on a level playing field. Since the mid-1980s, a number of states have implemented regulations for businesses that offer indoor tanning services.
With these instances of state level regulation now in place and available to serve as examples for other states, industry experts expect many of the remaining states to be at work on their own regulations. Those already adopted by some states, such as Ohio, California and North Carolina, likely will aid in the development of other local codes. In addition, a model set of rules written by a national organization of state radiation control officers is slated for final approval.
The Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors (CRCPD) is, as its name suggests, a national organization made up of the directors of the radiation control programs of each state. In existence since 1968, its purpose is to share knowledge freely between the states and to set national standards for radiation control.
The purpose of the model regulations is to give governmental agencies at all levels a framework on which to build the codes for their particular state. The CRCPD’s intent is to achieve some national uniformity in this type of regulations. Although the model only addresses radiation control, and skips over some health and cosmetic issues such as sanitation, most local authorities should find it a good starting point, since most of their radiological research is already done for them.
Although some salons owners may view regulation as something to be avoided, industry experts argue that the enforcement of fair and reasonable rules actually will improve the health of the industry by forcing uncommitted and uneducated operators out of the industry and preventing them from causing consumers harm.
Not surprisingly, in Ohio, North Carolina and California, as well as in the handful of counties and cities with regulations in place, the central theme seems to be consumer safety.
Whatever their intent, there are some limits to what local rules can require. States and cities cannot implement any regulation that is substantially different from the FDA regulations, according to FDA representatives. This argument apparently has legal merit, since based on it, an outright ban on tanning equipment in Wakefield, Mass., was challenged a few years back and overturned.
However, Wakefield’s ban is a worst-case example; few local authorities take controls to quite that extreme. More typically, they apply themselves to ensuring that operating procedures are followed to reduce consumer risk. States, counties and cities are fairly consistent in what they address. Most have provisions requiring that all businesses offering tanning be registered, that warning signs be posted, that consumers are adequately notified of the risks of tanning, that protective eyewear is available, that certain minimum cleanliness standards are observed, that minors not be allowed to tan without parental permission and that the state or FDA be notified of any injuries.
The means of enforcement and penalties for violations is not so standardized, but it is typically moderate. Even those local authorities that have such measures at their disposal are slow to use them, usually trying to give salon owners every opportunity to rectify the situation before penalizing them or suspending their licenses.
