Page 937 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 17 March 2010
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Wednesday, 17 March 2010
MR SPEAKER (Mr Rattenbury) took the chair at 10 am and asked members to stand in silence and pray or reflect on their responsibilities to the people of the Australian Capital Territory.
Leave of absence
Motion (by Ms Bresnan) agreed to:
That leave of absence be granted to Ms Hunter for this sitting due to ill health.
Radiation Protection (Tanning Units) Amendment Bill 2010
Ms Bresnan, pursuant to notice, presented the bill and its explanatory statement.
Title read by Clerk.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (10.01): I move:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
The bill that I am presenting today proposes to regulate the operation of solaria in the ACT.
The biggest users of solaria are young women aged 16 to 35, and often it seems they do not realise the risk at which they are placing themselves.
Contrary to what some people believe, solaria are not safe tanning devices. Research has shown that solaria increase the risk of developing skin cancer, including melanoma. A World Health Organisation study last year placed solaria in the same cancer risk category as tobacco smoking, quite a startling revelation. These findings follow a 2007 Queensland Institute of Medical Research study that found solarium use by people under 35 increases their risk of developing melanoma by 98 per cent.
The risk of solarium use has been recognised around Australia, and I appreciate that there has been an effort by COAG to come up with a nationally consistent response. But, as some of us know too well, on this and many other issues, COAG can be incredibly slow and several years can go by before we see any action. Moreover, where COAG has eventually agreed to something, it can then take years more before the necessary legislation is presented to state and territory parliaments. Recognising this reality, Victoria was the first state to go ahead and regulate solarium use. It introduced urgent legislation in 2007 as an interim measure. More methodical legislation was then introduced in 2008.
The guiding principles on how solaria should be operated are set out in the Australia-New Zealand standard on solaria for cosmetic purposes.
In January last year the standards were updated, and recommended that solaria use be restricted to people over 18 years old and those people not having very pale skin, also
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