One of the bills that Kansas lawmakers passed over the final weekend of the session bans minors from using commercial tanning beds. As Heartland Health Monitor’s Jim McLean reports, the bill was a priority for the University of Kansas Cancer Center.
Dr. Roy Jensen is director of the KU Cancer Center. His blunt testimony for the tanning-ban bill helped overcome opposition from lawmakers reluctant to interfere with private businesses.
“Indoor tanning causes cancer," Jensen says. "There is no scientific dispute. There is no intelligent contradiction to that. And it’s a fact.”
Studies show that teenagers who regularly use tanning beds greatly increase their chances of developing melanoma – the deadliest form of skin cancer.
In addition to saving lives, Jensen told lawmakers that passage of the bill could help KU’s chances of winning designation as a “Comprehensive Cancer Center.”
The university if expected to submit its application for the higher designation in September.