Healthy Beauty Skin & Body Sun Savvy

March 30, 2010 -- A ban on tanning-bed use by people with the palest skin is among several new restrictions recommended by an FDA advisory panel.

Earlier reports from the panel's March 25 meeting focused on its advice to restrict tanning bed use to adults age 18 and older. But that wasn't the only restriction the panel advised the FDA to adopt.

Perhaps the most interesting change would be the panel's recommendation to prohibit the use of tanning beds by people with Fitzpatrick skin type 1. People with this very pale skin type (such as red-haired people with freckles) get sunburns instead of tans when exposed to sunlight or tanning lamps.

The biggest recommended change is the panel's unanimous proposal to change tanning beds' Class I device designation, the least restrictive classification intended for devices that pose minimal risk to users or operators. Elastic bandages and hand-held surgical devices are examples of Class I devices.

Half the panel supported making tanning beds Class II devices, which require special assurances -- such as labeling requirements or mandatory performance standards -- that they will not cause harm. Class II devices include X-ray machines and powered wheelchairs.

The other half of the panel wants tanning beds listed as Class III devices, which not only require special controls such as operator training requirements but require premarket approval by the FDA. Class III devices include implanted pacemakers and silicon breast-augmentation gels.

The panel also recommended other special controls:

• Strengthening current requirements for protective eyewear
• Equipping tanning beds with mechanisms that prevent their activation until a customer acknowledges reading and accepting a series of warnings about indoor tanning risks
• A registry program for all tanning bed users, possibly supported by a user fee
• Strengthening requirements for tanning bed operator education, training, testing, and recertification
• Collection of data on the irradiance put out by tanning beds, possibly to be included in the user registry
• Restricting tanning bed use by pregnant women and by people who take certain drugs or use certain cosmetics that interact with UV light
• Even stronger restrictions on tanning beds sold for in-home use

The panel said there was no need to separately regulate tanning beds that are UV-A only, UV-B only, or a mixture of both.

Response to Panel's Proposed Tanning Bed Restrictions

Medical groups praised the panel's recommendations.

"The skin cancer and dermatologic communities came together and presented compelling personal stories and rigorous scientific evidence demonstrating the dangers of indoor tanning," Allan Halpern, MD, vice president of the Skin Cancer Foundation, says in a news release. "The advisory panel made excellent recommendations and now it's up to the FDA to take action."

The panel's recommendations are another blow to the tanning industry, which just last week was hit by a 10% tax as part of the health care reform law.