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Melbourne's The Sunday Age has reported that Victoria's solarium industry is on the brink of collapse, with increased skin cancer fears and a crackdown on rogue operators sparking a 45% drop in the number of tanning salons.

Government figures obtained by The Sunday Age show that 196 businesses have either closed or removed their sunbeds since State Government regulations were introduced in February last year.

The Sunday Age went on to report that "owners say customers started abandoning tanning salons following the public cancer battle of 26-year-old Clare Oliver, who died in September 2007 from melanoma she and her oncology team linked to solarium use.

"Since the introduction of the laws, which ban children from using solariums and force operators to display health warnings or risk $1 million fines, the number of tanning salons across the state has plummeted from 436 to 240. But while cancer experts celebrate the news, the industry claims it is a victim of a scare campaign that saw solarium operators compared to heroin dealers.

"A leading operator said the industry was 'like a ghost town' and he expected that the total number of solarium owners would have dropped by up to 60 per cent in the next few months."

Industry spokesman George Lihounas, owner of the Sun Lounge franchise, told The Sunday Age he had been forced to close half of his 20 outlets and wind up his sunbed import business due to lack of demand, stating "a lot of businesses have gone under - liquidated, so there's not a whole lot of us left."

Lihounas said the public health campaign targeting solariums led to his salons being vandalised adding "the whole Clare Oliver saga just scared a lot of people off. People were comparing us to heroin dealers ... it's one thing to regulate, but another thing to wipe out an entire industry."

Clare Oliver's oncologist, Associate Professor Grant McArthur from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, said the dramatic slump in solarium use was a "wonderful testament" to her patient's vision to help the community in the final days of her life.

"She has succeeded as well as we could ever have hoped," McArthur explained, adding "I know that Priscilla, her mother, is incredibly proud of what she has achieved and these new figures just add to that." Solarium owners have questioned the link between Clare Oliver's solarium use and her death, claiming she only used sunbeds on a handful of occasions. But Associate Professor McArthur said there was no safe level of use, stating "there is definite evidence that people less than 35 years of age have an increased risk of developing melanoma if they've used solariums."

Victorian Health Minister Daniel Andrews defended the Government's crackdown on tanning salons, saying five Victorians are diagnosed with melanoma every day and five die from the cancer each week. Minister Andrews explained "it's not about banning or penalising the industry. We want to work with the industry to make sure it is safer because we know that solariums emit ultraviolet rays up to three times stronger than the midday summer sun."

Craig Sinclair, Director of Cancer Prevention at the Cancer Council Victoria, said the scale of the tanning industry's downturn was a world first. "Providing we continue to raise people's awareness of the dangers associated with them we would hope that within time solariums would be very much a thing of the past."

The Sunday Age added that "the industry is in such a state of crisis that its peak body, the Australian Tanning Association, has disbanded after being forced to retract claims that solariums were safe following legal action brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

"Chain operator Body Bronze was found to have breached the Trade Practices Act and has closed about 20 of its 45 Victorian outlets. Sophie Tzefer, who runs a Body Bronze salon, said the industry was on the brink of collapse and her profits had fallen by a third.

"The number of individual tanning beds in Victoria has dropped by 36% — from 1021 in December 2007 to 656.”

The Sunday Age also added that George Lihounas had "challenged the (Victorian) Government to present statistics that showed a reduction in melanoma cases since the industry was regulated.”"

23rd January 2009 - VICTORIA INTRODUCES TOUGHER REGULATIONS ON SOLARIUMS

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