摘要：Although many countries still face opposition to the legislation of artificial tanning beds, all Australian states and territories have announced a total ban on commercial tanning beds. A combination of epidemiological and policy-centered research, powerful personal stories, and the active advocacy of prominent academics, cancer organizations, and grassroots community campaigners contributed to the decisions to first legislate standards and then ban all commercial tanning beds. We have illustrated that incremental change can be an effective pathway to securing substantial public health reforms. The Evidence Linking Artificial tanning beds to melanoma risk is now unequivocal. In 2006, the International Agency for Research in Cancer released a systematic review that proved to be significant in raising awareness of the harmful effects of tanning bed use. 1 A more recent update of this systematic review of the literature concluded that the increased risk of melanoma associated with early tanning bed use was 59% for people whose first exposure to artificial ultraviolet radiation in a suntanning unit occurred before aged 35 years and that risk increased with the number of tanning bed sessions per year. 2,3 With the evidence of increased risk of melanoma and other skin cancers growing, legislative controls to ban access to commercial tanning beds for those younger than 18 years have been implemented in nearly 20 countries, 4 almost all since 2006, indicating the influence of the International Agency for Research in Cancer report along with local public health advocacy efforts. However, tanning bed control advocates in many countries still face opposition. For example, in the United States, although there are more than 30 states that have some controls related to tanning bed use, only California, Vermont, Oregon, Texas, Nevada, and Illinois have introduced statewide bans for those younger than 18 years.
