Gov. Dannel P. Malloy displays legislation that restricts minor’s access to indoor tanning salons.
The governor signed the health measure Friday (July 12) during a ceremony in his office at the Capitol in Hartford. A Yale School of Public Health study completed last year that identified a strong association between indoor tanning and basal cell carcinoma (BCC), a form of skin cancer, in young people in Connecticut contributed important data to existing research on melanoma, the most lethal form of skin cancer, for the new law. The Yale research found that people who used indoor tanning beds had a 69 percent increased risk of early-onset BCC compared with those who did not tan indoors.
Malloy congratulated lawmakers, scientists and advocates for their combined work on legislation that will protect Connecticut’s youth. The law, which goes into effect later this year, prohibits people under 17 years old from using indoor tanning facilities.
Attending the ceremonial signing and pictured here are Susan T. Mayne (second from right), the C.-E.A. Winslow Professor of Epidemiology at YSPH and the study’s senior author; Leah M. Ferrucci (fourth from right), an associate research scientist at YSPH and the study's lead author; Avery LaChance (behind governor), an M.D./M.P.H. student at the University of Connecticut; Colleen O’Connor (right) of the Connecticut Public Health Association; Lisa Davis (third from right) of the Connecticut Department of Public Health; and state Rep. Philip J. Miller (behind chair), D-36th District, vice chair of the legislature’s Public Health Committee. Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman is to the left of the governor.