Teens and tans don't mix - at least not in Port Moody, where staff are drafting a bylaw to ban the use of tanning beds for anyone under 18.

The decision was made last week, six days before B.C. Health Minister Mike de Jong announced the province will bring in new regulations for youths using tanning beds. Tanners under 18 will either be required to provide parental consent or be banned from using tanning beds altogether with the new provincial rules.

Coun. Diana Dilworth was the only councillor to vote against Port Moody's plan at last week's council meeting.

"While I don't disagree with the potential health hazards of indoor tanning, whether it's to someone under 18 or over 18, I don't believe it's the city's role to implement a banning bylaw - I also think it's much easier to implement a provincial ban rather than a piecemeal approach," Dilworth said.

"I will use the example of the pesticide ban. If the pesticide ban was implemented 10 years ago by the province as a provincial ban, we would all be in a much better place."

For Coun. Bob Elliott, it's fine for adults to decide for themselves, but underage tanning should not be allowed.

"If you're over 18 years of age, you have a right to sit in there all you want," Elliott said. "It's your choice.

If you get cancer, you get cancer. For me, that's a personal decision and I wouldn't want to make this decision unless it's under 18 years of age."

Mayor Mike Clay also supported the motion, although he expressed concerns about potential bylaw enforcement.

"The numbers are so compelling - a 75-per-cent increase in your chance of contracting cancer," Clay said. "It's outrageous to me. I don't know why anybody would want to do it."

Helena Swinkels, a Fraser Health medical health officer, said the World Health Organization has labelled UV radiation from tanning beds as a carcinogen in the same category as tobacco and asbestos.

"The fact of the matter is that the UV radiation from tanning beds has been associated with skin cancer - The risk is cumulative over the years. It's partially because the earlier you start, the more you're going to be exposed. But this is also when habits are formed and ideals about beauty," Swinkels told The NOW.

"There is some evidence that there may be an addictive component to tanning."

Parental permission is not enough, Swinkels added.

"The analogy is similar to tobacco - We don't let parents decide for their children under the age of 18 whether or not they can smoke," she said. "So it's similar that we shouldn't let parents decide for their children under the age of 18 whether they should tan."

But for Steve Gilroy, executive director of the Joint Canadian Tanning Association, parental consent is better than an all-out tan ban.

"The risk is lower than what it is for sunlight. And you're going to allow parents to make a decision on whether or not they take a child on a sunny vacation or go out for a golf game in the mid-afternoon," Gilroy said.

"We believe there should be parental consent, and our members do follow that. It's in our guidelines to have everybody get parental consent for under the age of 18."

Tanners should also be aware of their skin type, Gilroy said.

"What you should be doing is banning skin type 1 from exposing themselves, whether indoors or outdoors. The reason why is those are the people that always burn and never tan," he said.

"They're always going to burn, so why would they actually want to do this? What you want to do is control exposure, so you should have certified and trained operators doing this."

Overall, less than two per cent of tanning clientele is under 18, Gilroy said. "If you're talking about a teen, here's why they come: special occasions or they're going on a sunny vacation in Mexico and their parents bring them in. Some people say a base tan is not that much of a protection, but aren't we better off to have something than nothing? Are we better off putting chemical sunscreens all over our body? There's pros and cons to everything."

jmcfee@thenownews.com