Major Epic Facepalm

[fireheart17]

http://www.news.com.au/national/sout...-1226957952532

So for a bit o'background, Isobel Redmond is the former leader of the Liberal (aka "Conservative") Party for my state. She resigned last year and now we have someone else in the spot.

And now she wants to try and STOP the proposed legislation that would ban solariums in the state.

As it stands, solariums are bound by several laws already (or will be soon) and among those are not allowing people to visit every 24 hours, not allowing people with fair skin to use solariums and so on. They are pushing for the complete and total ban of commercial solariums.

Personally, I agree with the ban. What I find the former Liberal Party leader to be, is a complete and utter idiot. (and no her legislation won't go through, I just found this hilarious )

[gremcint]

oh, tanning beds. I googled solariums and got sun rooms as the definitions and was confused why people would want to ban those at all.

Do tanning beds provide any actual health benefit in any situation?

[Greenday]

I'm confused. Why do people want to actually ban tanning beds in the first place?

[KabeRinnaul]

I'm confused. Why do people want to actually ban tanning beds in the first place?

Because stupid or shortsighted people overuse them to the point they wind up with skin cancer. Busybodies decide that the government ought to ban anything that's harmful (usually recreational drugs—including alcohol and tobacco) for the public good, because they basically think personal responsibility can't be trusted. So they lobby the government to ban tanning beds so stupid people don't give themselves skin cancer.

Nevermind that stupid vain people will not cease to be stupid and vain simply because it has been made slightly less convenient for them.

[fireheart17]

Do tanning beds provide any actual health benefit in any situation?

Not for anything that can't be treated with something else. One of the claims I've heard is actually ludicrous and that's that tanning beds can treat depression and seasonal affective disorder. Those people confused it with light therapy, which often has a filter to block out UV rays so the person needing the therapy doesn't come to as much harm.
Other claimed benefits have included treatment of acne and other skin conditions (it dries things out and doesn't work for long), treatment of osteoporosis and other bone disorders (no proven effect) and treatment for Vitamin D deficiency (nearly all manufacturers have switched to a lamp that actually provides LESS of the light that the body turns into Vitamin D).

I'm confused. Why do people want to actually ban tanning beds in the first place?

Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancers in the world for starters. Part of it comes in the wake of Clare Oliver, a woman whose fight with melanoma was made public. There were restrictions imposed on the use of solariums, but they weren't as heavily enforced by places (for instance, there was a flat under-18 ban in my state and people with fair skin were banned from solarium use. I don't know HOW the latter one got around anti-discrimination laws)

We also do not have the same degree of litigation in the US, although thats likely to change in the long run. The last thing anyone needs is to sue the government or the salon for failure to stop their clients from developing melanoma or similar and then the ban WOULD come into effect anyway.

[s_stabeler]

the fair skin one got around anti-discrimination laws because the reason behind the laws wasn't actually prejudiced- fair skinned people DO burn far more easily. It's more or less the same principle as is behind blind people not being able to drive.

[fireheart17]

the fair skin one got around anti-discrimination laws because the reason behind the laws wasn't actually prejudiced- fair skinned people DO burn far more easily. It's more or less the same principle as is behind blind people not being able to drive.

True. I know there's times when the discrimination laws are considered to be "reasonable" and I'm guessing this would be one of those. I'm just amazed that someone hasn't tried to sue yet

[sophie]

How would they even judge who's skin is fair? Isn't that a bit subjective?

[Gravekeeper]

Nevermind that stupid vain people will not cease to be stupid and vain simply because it has been made slightly less convenient for them.

When your rampant stupidity is creating a financial burden on a health care system, its no longer just a matter of you being stupid. Skin cancer is one of the easiest cancers to prevent and yet the rate of skin cancer is growing faster than any other cancer. Why? Because fucking stupid people. Its not a matter of busybodies. The younger you are when you climb into one of these things the higher the increase in cancer risk. And not by a small margin. We're talking like a 60% increase.

So you're draining resources from the rest of the herd with your idiocy but ethics stops us from just letting lions eat you to solve the problem.

[Seshat]

I wish light boxes were as easy to get the use of as tanning booths: Bast was using a tanning salon for a while and it did help with her mental health issues. But we decided it wasn't work the skin risks.


Queensland, Australia has been the per-capita skin cancer capital of the world. Might still be, I don't know.

LOTS of Irish-descended and other British-Isles and Germanic-area descended people. Half the state in the tropics, the rest in the subtropics. And in my childhood, very few people with any concept of sun exposure->skin cancer.

The southern part of Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania (and the South Island of New Zealand, and South Africa) are all beneath the hole in the ozone layer, depending on its severity in any given year. Unlike the other continental area which is under the hole - the tip of South America - Australia, South Africa and New Zealand have significant populations of fair-skinned individuals.
So again, there's a major skin cancer risk. Inadequate melanin protection.

AFAIK, Australia's the only country which has the combination of ozone hole, tropics and a sizeable fair-skinned population. Expect us to be the first to legislate skin cancer protection measures: we've got the combination of circumstances to make us (probably) the worst-affected (per capita).


Edit to add: it's actually quite easy to define 'fair-skinned'. Find a place which has minimal or no sun exposure, and compare that skin colour to a colour chart. The goal in this specific skin colour test is purely to determine one's natural melanin level, and a colour chart works it out just fine.