Shortly before being nominated for the job, Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a now-infamous post on X, in which he pledged to end the federal government's "aggressive suppression" of – among many things – "sunshine."
That appears to have included artificial sources of sunshine. As in tanning beds.
This week, the Food and Drug Administration abandoned a long-running proposal to ban people under 18 from using tanning beds, also known as sunlamps. The rules, proposed in late 2015, would have also required those who do use them to periodically sign forms acknowledging the risks of skin cancer.
Medical groups representing doctors and patients were dismayed at the agency's decision to back away from tougher regulation of the devices, which are available at tanning salons and some major gym chains.
There's extensive data showing that indoor tanning significantly increases your chance of developing skin cancer.
The harms are particularly pronounced for those who start at a young age and the regulations would have been a "huge" step forward, says Dr. Susan Taylor, president of the American Academy of Dermatology, one of the medical groups that had pushed for the stricter rulers.
Those who use tanning beds before the age of 20 have a nearly 50% higher risk of melanoma – the deadliest form of skin cancer – according to one major analysis. The World Health Organization puts UV emitting indoor tanning devices in the same category as carcinogens like tobacco and asbestos.
"The damage that you see in the skin cells of these tanning bed users is alarming," says Hunter Shain, an associate professor of dermatology at the University of California, San Francisco. "The argument against the usage of tanning beds is at least as strong as tobacco use."
Tanning access versus risk
In a memo on the decision, Kennedy states that the FDA was withdrawing the proposed rules because of "scientific and technical concerns" and "possible unintended consequences."
Asked for further comment by NPR, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said the agency was reassessing "how to balance public health considerations with consumer access and choice."
"Withdrawal of the proposed rule does not change the established science on UV exposure. Exposure to ultraviolet radiation, including from sunlamp products, is known to increase the risk of skin cancer," the emailed statement continued.
Kennedy was asked about the time he spends tanning in an interview with The Atlantic last year. He told the publication: "I'm not telling people that they should do anything that I do."
The FDA's proposal drew more than 9,000 public comments – many of them from people who work in the tanning industry and opposed the rules on the grounds of personal choice. Other reasons include current state restrictions and the fear that people would go underground to tan at businesses that operate undetected by regulators.
In their comments, industry groups, the Indoor Tanning Association and the American Suntanning Association, dispute the scientific evidence that exposure to UV radiation at a young age, including from tanning beds, confers greater risk.
But those who study skin cancer like Shain say the data are clear that high doses of UV radiation earlier in life has an "outsized" influence on your risk of cancer.
"It's a particularly vulnerable point where the damage that you incur is going to sit with you for the rest of your life," he says, adding that lying in a tanning bed is equivalent to sitting outside at the equator at high noon.
Young people take new shine to tanning
And there are indications that tanning is making a comeback among teens and young adults, inspired by the melange of health and wellness content proliferating on social media and TikTok.
The messaging from Kennedy and his MAHA supporters espouse the health benefits of time spent outdoors and adequate sunlight, but that's altogether different than indoor tanning, says Susan Mayne, an adjunct professor at the Yale School of Public Health and a former FDA official.
In her own work, Mayne has studied the prevalence of skin cancer in young adults and teens who frequented indoor tanning salons. This type of research led Connecticut and other states to adopt regulations on minors and tanning, though she says a national regulation like the one proposed by FDA, would have been significant.
"The Make America Healthy Again movement talks about reducing risk for our kids," she says. "The actual actions that we see from the administration tend to be deregulatory, taking down regulations that would be in place to help protect our children."
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