A pioneering Mail on Sunday campaign highlighting the link between underage sunbed use and skin cancer was praised by the Government last night as it cracks down on the practice.
Health Minister Karin Smyth thanked this newspaper’s efforts as she unveiled stringent measures to protect teenagers from devastating illnesses and exploitative tanning salons. She also spoke of her own battle against the disease.
In May 2023, the MoS sent an undercover 16-year-old girl to tanning salons, reporting how she was pressured into using sunbeds every day despite guidelines advising a maximum of three sessions a week and laws banning under-18s.
Our shocking findings revealed that of the 100 salons approached, more than half did not ask for any proof of age. Four out of the six we visited in person allowed in our teenager Isabella Hicks, who had turned 16 only three months earlier.
Now, in the wake of our campaign, the Government is proposing to ban unsupervised sunbed use and introduce mandatory identification checks at tanning salons.
Ms Smyth said: ‘I am grateful to The Mail on Sunday for its important reporting exposing the risks of underage sunbed use, which has drawn attention to this serious public health issue.’
Speaking of her own encounter with skin cancer, she added: ‘In 2023, I noticed a small growth on my leg that I dismissed at first. Like many people, I was busy, I didn’t want to make a fuss. I told myself it was probably nothing serious.
‘It was only after it was checked that I was diagnosed with melanoma. I was treated quickly and I am doing well – but that experience stays with you.’
In May 2023, the Mail on Sunday sent Isabella Hicks, then 16, undercover to tanning salons, reporting how she was pressured into using sunbeds every day despite guidelines advising a maximum of three sessions a week and laws banning under-18s
But she warned that ‘many young adults still underestimate the risks’, and some wrongly believe sunbeds are harmless or even protective.
‘We continue to see reports of teenagers, some as young as 14, accessing sunbeds illegally, despite the ban. That is unacceptable,’ she said.
A consultation ahead of the crackdown, part of the Government’s forthcoming National Cancer Plan, will be launched this spring – with the new measures to come into force as early as 2027.
Skin cancer kills seven people a day on average in Britain and costs the NHS roughly £750million a year to treat.
It can be caused by exposure to UV radiation, either directly from the sun or from sunbeds, which the World Health Organisation classifies as a Group 1 carcinogen – the same category as smoking.
