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Teen Tanning Limits Axed In Colorado

DENVER (AP) - Teens in Colorado won't have to worry about losing the right to hit indoor tanning beds as often as they like without collecting state-mandated permission slips after a lawmaker on Tuesday backed off her plan to require parental notification.

Colorado is one of the few states that doesn't limit youth tanning bed use.

Rep. Cherylin Peniston had suggested a bill to that would call for minors to obtain permission before UV tanning. But the Westminster Democrat said her plan was besieged by opponents on both sides and asked her colleagues to reject the proposal Tuesday. Unanimously, a House committee agreed, scuttling Peniston's bill.

Some Republicans said the plan would create needless red tape. And health advocates said they couldn't support the bill because they considered it too weak.

Peniston's measure would have required a parent's permission before a person younger than 18 could use a tanning bed with UV exposure. For children younger than 14, parents would have to be present while the child used a tanning bed.

Health groups have warned that any UV tanning in childhood increases the risk of cancer.

Peniston said she "went too far with the compromises and ended up with nobody supporting the bill."

An industry group, the Washington-based Indoor Tanning Association, said most tanning salons already require parental notification for minors.

The chairman of the committee planning to hear Peniston's tanning bill Tuesday, Republican Rep. Larry Liston of Colorado Springs, said tanning bed limits would have faced a tough road in the Legislature. Lawmakers from both parties have vowed to cut government regulation.

"I commend (Peniston) for trying to do the right thing, but I think it would have put unnecessary restraints on businesses," Liston said of tanning bed permission slips. "That should be a parent's responsibility and not the business's."

Because of expected opposition, Peniston said she didn't see any point in toughening it to a full ban on minors in tanning beds.

"I don't want to waste anybody's time unnecessarily," she said.

LINK: House Bill 1170

- By Kristen Wyatt, AP Writer

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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