PEOPLE with very fair skin and teenagers will not be allowed to use solariums in at least one state in new regulations to stop vulnerable people developing cancer.
The proposed new law in Western Australia follows the death of 26-year-old Claire Oliver in Melbourne last September.
She campaigned from her sickbed against solariums, which she blamed for contributing to her terminal cancer.
WA Health Minister Jim McGinty said today there was mounting evidence of a link between cancer and solariums.
"There are no health benefits whatsoever, no therapeutic benefits from the use of solaria. But there is a very big downside," Mr McGinty said on Fairfax radio.
"It`s something in the light of bitter experience, particularly with Claire Oliver in Melbourne, her death, that we think it`s time we regulated it quite severely as quite a dangerous occupation."
Under the regulations, people with very fair skin, or skin type one, would not be allowed to use them because of their "extreme risk" of developing cancer.
People under 18 would also be banned, solarium operators would be required to undergo training, and educational material would have to be available at solarium centres.
The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency says people with skin type one are at the greatest risk of developing some form of skin cancer.
They are advised to limit their exposure to the sun.
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