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Compliance with indoor tanning bans for minors among businesses in the USA

  • Original Research
  • Published:
Translational Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Indoor tanning is a known risk factor for skin cancer and is especially dangerous for adolescents. Some states have passed indoor tanning bans for minors, but business compliance with the bans is not well understood. Thus far, studies have assessed ban compliance in one or two states at a time. This study aimed to assess compliance with indoor tanning bans for minors and knowledge of dangers and benefits of tanning among indoor tanning businesses. Female research assistants posing as minors telephoned a convenience sample of 412 businesses in 14 states with tanning bans for minors under age 17 or 18. We evaluated differences in compliance by census region and years since ban was implemented and differences in reported dangers and benefits by compliance. Most (80.1%) businesses told the “minor” caller she could not use the tanning facilities. Businesses in the south and in states with more recent bans were less compliant. Among those (n = 368) that completed the full interview, 52.2% identified burning and 20.1% mentioned skin cancer as potential dangers. However, 21.7% said dangers were no worse than the sun and 10.3% denied any dangers. Stated benefits included vitamin D (27.7%), social/cosmetic (27.2%), and treats skin diseases (26.4%), with only 4.9% reporting no benefits. While most businesses followed the indoor tanning ban when a minor called, one-fifth did not. Many stated inaccurate health claims. Additional enforcement or education might increase compliance with indoor tanning bans and action is needed to prevent businesses from stating false health information.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yale School of Public Health, 55 Church Street, Suite 801, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA

    Courtney C. Choy MPH, Brenda Cartmel PhD, Rachel A. Clare MPH & Leah M. Ferrucci PhD, MPH

  2. Yale Cancer Center, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA

    Brenda Cartmel PhD & Leah M. Ferrucci PhD, MPH

Authors
  1. Courtney C. Choy MPH
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  2. Brenda Cartmel PhD
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  3. Rachel A. Clare MPH
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  4. Leah M. Ferrucci PhD, MPH
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Leah M. Ferrucci PhD, MPH.

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Funding

Supported by a Mentored Research Scholar Grant (MRSG-13-016-01-CPPB) from the American Cancer Society. 

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical disclosures

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Our study protocol was approved by Yale University IRB Human Subjects Committee (protocol no. 1504015679), and for this type of study, formal consent was not required. This manuscript does contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Implications

Practice: The majority of businesses offering indoor tanning appear to be compliant with indoor tanning bans which may in turn decrease indoor tanning among minors.

Policy: Policy makers who want to reduce the prevalence of an important skin cancer risk factors in adolescents should explore the possibility of a federal ban on indoor tanning for minors.

Research: Future research is needed to understand how enforcement of existing bans and education can be used to further reduce the prevalence of indoor tanning among minors.

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Cite this article

Choy, C.C., Cartmel, B., Clare, R.A. et al. Compliance with indoor tanning bans for minors among businesses in the USA. Behav. Med. Pract. Policy Res. 7, 637–644 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-017-0510-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-017-0510-4

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