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Dermatologists urge stricter safeguards for minors' indoor tanning in support of Senate Bill 25
Summary
A board-certified dermatologist representing the Ohio Dermatological Association and the Ohio State Medical Association testified in favor of Senate Bill 25, which would require a parent or guardian to be present at each tanning session for a minor; testimony cited FDA guidance and the elevated UVA exposure from tanning devices.
Dr. Shannon Trotter, a board-certified dermatologist, testified in proponent testimony for Senate Bill 25, telling the Senate Health Committee the bill strikes a compromise that retains parental consent while requiring a parent or guardian to be physically present for each indoor tanning session by a minor.
"Senate Bill 25 is essentially not a complete ban on indoor tanning beds by minors. Rather, this legislation retains parental consent and autonomy while simply requiring that a parent or guardian not only give consent for services, but also be present at each tanning session," Dr. Trotter told the committee. She presented the measure as a public-health protection for children and adolescents and said the Ohio Dermatological Association and the Ohio State Medical Association support the bill.
Dr. Trotter cited the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's prior action adding a boxed warning for tanning devices and gave an annual cost figure for melanoma treatment cited in testimony: "$3,300,000,000 of skin cancer treatment costs are attributed to melanoma alone." When asked directly whether indoor tanning causes skin cancer, Dr. Trotter replied, "Absolutely." She explained the science behind risk, saying tanning beds deliver a much stronger component of ultraviolet A (UVA) light—"about 10 to 15 times" the UVA intensity of ordinary sun exposure in her testimony—and that adolescents' skin and immune systems are especially vulnerable.
Senators asked clarifying questions about mechanism and risk. In response to a question about whether tanning is only harmful when it causes sunburn, Dr. Trotter said cumulative nonburn damage and tanning itself are forms of ultraviolet injury that increase future skin cancer risk.
Why it matters: Testimony framed the bill as a public-health measure to reduce future skin-cancer incidence among minors by limiting unsupervised tanning and increasing parental oversight. The committee took testimony and engaged in technical questioning about exposure, risk and the bill's parental-consent approach.
