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Episode 24

Episode 24 of 18

X-Ray is in Wrexham with an expert answering your consumer questions. We go undercover to see if tanning salons are breaking the law, and we hear from a viewer who’s had a nightmare with their electric car.

29 minutes

Last on

Tue 5 Jul 2022 11:45

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Tanning salons in Wales are breaking the law.

Tanning salons in Wales are breaking the law.
Tanning salons in Wales are breaking the law by letting under-18s use their sunbeds, an undercover Â鶹ԼÅÄ investigation has found.
Research undertaken by X-Ray shows salons in Newport and Cardiff letting in two underage teenage girls without any ID checks whatsoever.
In 2011, it became illegal for any sunbed salon business to let anyone under the age of 18 use a sunbed.  The law came about after fears of increased cancer in younger people. Recent figures from England suggest that thousands of children there are still using them, so the Welsh consumer series set out to discover if the same was happening this side of the border.
Of the twelve salons the programme visited, five (just over 40%) took money from the underage girls and showed them how to use the sunbeds, before the girls made their excuses and left.
Professor Christian Aldridge, a consultant dermatologist based at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil, says “We’ve had a  considerable number of cases of particularly young women under 25, who’ve come in as a result of mole changes on their skin. Sometimes other family members are unaware that they’re using sunbeds because they’re underage.â€

The programme features 26-year-old Paris Tippett from Reading. Miss Tippett was diagnosed with  Stage 2 Melanoma after finding a new freckle on her leg after prolonged sunbed use. A large chunk her leg was removed, along with her lymph nodes, in order to treat the cancer. 
When asked about her underage sunbed use she says, “I may have even been 16 actually. Because they used to ask you for your date of birth and I’d just say it and they’d let you go in and just believe it. So you just kind of practice a date of birth and there was no ID. And actually I have shown my sister’s ID before and they just took me in.â€

The secret filming footage captured by X-Ray shows multiple breaches of the regulations. 
Julie Barratt, President of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, was shown the footage and says: “It doesn’t matter how young people look or how old people look, the requirement is they produce ID.  And they weren’t asked to. And certainly there was no proof of ID. And that’s very concerning.â€

The programme also contacted Cardiff and Newport Councils about their findings. Cardiff said they take the regulation of age restricted products very seriously and will be reviewing the practices of tanning salons within their area to ensure compliance with the law. Newport asked anyone aware of  underage tanning taking place to contact their environmental health team.

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Lucy Owen
Presenter Rachel Treadaway-Williams
Presenter Mo Jannah
Series Producer Sean Hughes
Executive Producer Samantha Rosie

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