SNP MP calls for ban on tanning salons to help reduce risk of skin cancer caused by sunbeds

dailyrecord.co.uk:

An SNP MP has called for a ban on high street tanning salons to help reduce the number of Scots at risk from skin cancer.Amy Callaghan, a melanoma survivor, said she hoped Scotland would follow the example of Australia in outlawing commercial solariums.

She spoke out after a patient support group called for sunbeds to have graphic warning signs about the risks of cancer in a similar way to cigarette packets.Skin Cancer UK said such a move would save lives and is now calling for the UK Government to update legislation and make warning signs mandatory.Callaghan told the Record: "I would like to see Scotland follow the likes of Australia in banning sunbeds. "They wreak havoc on our skin and are a leading cause of skin cancer and therefore should have no place on our high streets."The East Dunbartonshire MP was diagnosed with melanoma at the age of 19, which later required surgery.

She has been cancer free since March 2014.She has repeatedly called on the UK Government to remove VAT from sunscreen products to make them cheaper and more easily available to the public.High-factor sunscreen is on the NHS prescription list for certain conditions - but Callaghan wants a blanket exemption.In a letter to Tory ministers earlier this year, she said it was "outrageous" that more people were dying of skin cancer in the UK than in Australia.Most skin cancers are caused by exposure to the sun, with 17,000 new cases of melanoma diagnosed each year across the UK.Some 2,300 people across the country lose their lives to the disease every year.Skin Cancer UK last week raised concerns social media is fuelling a rise in tanning bed usage among younger people.It claims there has been more than 200 million searches for the term #sunbed on the