New York, NY (March 18, 2026) — The Skin Cancer Foundation is greatly disappointed that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has withdrawn the 2015 proposed rule “General and Plastic Surgery Devices: Restricted Sale, Distribution, and Use of Sunlamp Products.” This proposed rule contained three restrictions that would have been helpful to Americans, who face high rates of skin cancer:
- Restrict the use of sunlamp products to individuals age 18 and older.
- Require adults to sign a risk acknowledgement certification within the last six months before using sunlamp product.
- Require tanning facility operators to provide a sunlamp product’s user manual to users or prospective users of sunlamp products upon request.
The Foundation strongly supports measures that discourage people from engaging in dangerous and potentially deadly indoor tanning practices, particularly when individuals are uninformed about the potential health hazards caused by the ultraviolet (UV) radiation emitted by these devices or when these individuals are not of an age to truly be able to consent to practices that can have long-term consequences to their health.
Studies offer alarming evidence that indoor tanning bed use increases the risk of all forms of skin cancer, including melanoma, the deadliest form of the disease. In fact, those who begin tanning before age 35 increase their melanoma risk by almost 75 percent. A December 2025 paper entitled “Molecular effects of indoor tanning” published the results of a study showing these risks to be even higher. This study found that people who use tanning beds have more DNA damage in their skin cells than people twice their age who don’t use tanning beds.
It is our hope that the FDA reviews the scientific evidence and reconsiders this decision. In the meantime, The Skin Cancer Foundation will continue to educate the public about the dangers of UV tanning beds.
— Deborah S. Sarnoff, MD, President of The Skin Cancer Foundation