PEOPLE under 30 or with skin classed as burning easily and tanning minimally will be banned from using solariums in NSW under plans to tighten regulation of the cancer-causing sun beds.
But the state government stopped short of following the lead of Brazil, which banned all sun beds last year.
The Assistant Health Minister, Frank Sartor, yesterday released a consultation document, which calls for a toughening of the legislation that would make NSW's solarium regulations the strongest in Australia.
He said the risk associated with sun beds was even higher than previously understood, particularly for young people who started using solariums early.
Melanoma accounts for about one-third of cancer cases in 15-30 year-olds in NSW and was the most common cancer in females aged 15-29 years, he said
Under the proposed changes, people with skin photo type 2, or skin that burns easily and tans minimally, and anyone aged under 25 will be banned from solariums from April 1. The age restriction will increase to 30 from August 1.
Jeff Davenport, 28, visits a solarium about once a week. He said a ban on people under 30 using sunbeds was harsh, but he would probably not attempt to circumvent the rules. ''I would just go in the real sun,'' he said.
The ban would probably push tanners towards drugs such as melanotan, which is injected into the skin, and has not been declared safe by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, he said.
Mr Sartor said tanning beds used in solariums were classed as a grade one carcinogen by the International Agency for Research in Cancer, prompting Brazil to be the first country in the world to make them illegal.
''By proposing further restrictions on the use of tanning beds for cosmetic purposes we can further mitigate the harmful carcinogenic effects of solaria radiation and significantly reduce the risk to young people and fair-skinned people of developing a melanoma,'' Mr Sartor said.
But the owner of Soleil Tanning in Darlinghurst, Fiona Gamble, said the laws would drive people to install tanning beds at home where they would be unsupervised.
The Greens MP John Kaye said the changes did not go far enough.
with Aaron Cook
