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Ontario plans to bring in bill banning youth from using tanning beds

By: Maria Babbage, The Canadian Press

Thursday, Mar. 7, 2013 at 1:05 PM | Comments: 0

A tanning bed is seen in North Vancouver, B.C. Tuesday, March, 20, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

TORONTO - Ontario's governing Liberals are poised to introduce legislation that would ban people under the age of 18 from using tanning beds.

Health Minister Deb Matthews will table a bill Thursday that would ban the sale of tanning services to minors to protect them from skin cancer, a source told The Canadian Press.

Former premier Dalton McGuinty promised the ban last September after the New Democrats spent years pushing for it.

McGuinty said he'd adopt the NDP bill after making some changes, but the proposed legislation died when he prorogued the legislature a month later.

NDP health critic France Gelinas said she offered the Liberals the bill to move it through the legislature more quickly.

As long as the legislation she proposed remains pretty much intact, she'll take any opportunity to drive it forward, she said.

"I'm willing to work with anybody who will make sure that we protect those young people," said Gelinas. "They deserve our protection."

Premier Kathleen Wynne said she's "very keen" to work with Gelinas on the issue.

"I am very much looking forward to us being able to find common cause on this," she told the legislature.

"Again, I think this is one of these issues that really is not partisan. I think that there is lots of evidence that demonstrates that this is a direction that we should be going."

Gelinas, who started lobbying for a ban in 2008, also wants warning signs posted near tanning beds.

The federal government said Health Canada will soon require that all tanning beds carry warnings about skin cancer and other potential dangers.

The Ontario Medical Association, which has been calling for a ban since 2010, welcomed the pending legislation.

"The evidence has been unequivocal over the last several years that tanning bed radiation is linked to skin cancer," said Dr. Samir Gupta, chairman of OMA's dermatology section.

"It's the sun exposure you're getting in your early years that predicts skin cancer later on," he said in an interview.

The ball really started rolling in 2009 when the World Health Organization classified tanning bed radiation into its highest carcinogenic risk category, along with smoking and asbestos, Gupta said.

"So that really got legislators going," he said.

Oakville became the first city in Ontario to ban young people from using tanning beds, and other municipalities in Canada are considering similar bylaws.

Nova Scotia already bans people under 19 from using tanning beds, while Manitoba requires written parental consent before people under 18 can use them.

Legislation took effect in Quebec last month that would ban those under 18 from using tanning beds and British Columbia plans similar legislation.

France, Germany and Australia have also banned young people from using tanning beds. Gupta said Brazil has banned adults as well as youth.

"We'd like to ban everyone from tanning beds," Gupta said.

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