For a mere $636 per year, you can have unlimited access to the Wildberry. This Syracuse bronzing machine is Hakuna Matata Tanning Salon’s premiere tanning bed, equipped with 46 turbo-powered 160-watt body lamps, neck and shoulder tanners, and three high-pressure facial lamps.

Unfortunately for the local youth, the Wildberry may soon be unattainable. Currently more than 30 states regulate indoor tanning for minors. New York is now among the states considering bills barring anyone under the age of 18 from bronzing sans sun.

Because it’s a city where the sun is as rare as a snowless January day, it’s no surprise tanning is so popular in Syracuse. The reality of this hit me when I learned my apartment complex offers unlimited tanning to its tenants. Lindsey Conrad, a graduate student in literacy education from Wilkes Barre, Pa., and no stranger to cold weather, started tanning before she enrolled at Syracuse University as an undergraduate.

‘In high school, I would tan for events, such as the prom or the semiformal. I would get a package for two weeks or a month before the event and then go every day,’ Conrad said.

Obviously legislators don’t put a premium on thwarting pasty prom pictures. Melanoma, a form of skin cancer, is one of the most common types of cancer in the United States. In 2010, 8,700 Americans died of the disease and 68,000 new cases of melanoma were reported. According to a study published in the March 2011 issue of Pediatrics, the intensity of UVA radiation produced by some tanning units can be 10 to 15 times higher than the midday sun. That sure doesn’t sound like ‘hakuna matata’ to me.

It’s no secret lung cancer, another common cancer, is often attributed to smoking cigarettes. Onondaga County tries to protect young people from picking up unhealthy habits by requiring residents to be at least 19 years old before buying cigarettes, so why not put a legal age on tanning? The world would be much healthier if smoke breaks and tanning beds were things of the past.

Those who disagree with me may argue this legislation would be a slippery slope of overly-parental preventative laws. Before we know it, legislators will ban cupcakes to prevent obesity and high heels to avoid broken ankles. Why not ban waking up while we’re at it? After all, fatigue has been plaguing campuses lately.

Regulating tanning, however, would be anything but dicey. We’d have fewer orange-toned youths roaming the city, and the potential for fewer melanoma cases is worth the legislation. The only ones who would lose if the law were passed are the tanning companies, and quite frankly, I’m willing to make tanning salons the sacrificial lamb if it means even one less cancer patient.

If I ruled the world, I would banish tanning salons entirely. I’d also banish cigarettes, winter temperatures below 50 degrees and Oscar performances by Gwyneth Paltrow.  Unfortunately, though, I have yet to be granted that power, so the proposed tanning legislation will do.

Alicia Smith is a graduate student in the magazine, newspaper and online journalism program at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Her column appears every Thursday, and she can be reached at acsmit05@syr.edu.

Published on March 2, 2011 at 12:00 pm