Sunbed Safety

Mid and West Wales Trading Standards Officers are working together to promote sunbed safety and ensure that they are fit for use.

A survey is being undertaken which will measure the level of safety of sunbeds which are widely used across the county.

In Carmarthenshire, Trading Standards Officers will compare units found in tanning and beauty salons, fitness suites and other settings with European legislation, which limits the ‘safe’ level of UV radiation emitted from the tubes of the sunbed to 0.3 W/m2. If the levels exceed this then the equipment is potentially ‘unsafe’ and contravenes the General Product Safety Regulations 2005.

The survey has been organised by the Welsh Heads of Trading Standards (WHoTS) and follows the lead of several local authorities across England and Wales where unfortunately there has been a large failure rate.

The main aims of the survey are:

• To raise the awareness of the relevant safety standards with service providers of tanning equipment across Wales.
• To ascertain the level of compliance of sunbeds and tanning equipment being made available to the public across Wales.
• To improve this level of compliance of this equipment through appropriate enforcement intervention.
• To generally improve the health and wellbeing of consumers of tanning services across Wales.

The council’s executive board member for environmental and public protection Cllr Jim Jones said: “Our duty is to protect consumers from potentially harmful exposure to high levels of radiation whilst maintaining fairness and assistance to the businesses that offer such a service.”

Businesses will be contacted before a visit is undertaken and given a certificate if their bed complies. Those that do not will be required to take steps to ensure that the beds do fall within the allowable limit.

Since the introduction in Wales of the Sunbeds (Regulation) Act 2010 (Wales) Regulations 2011, there are additional requirements for sunbed operators including the prohibition on use by under 18’s, the ban on unmanned salon, adequate supervision and the availability of statutory notices and information leaflets.

Any trader offering the commercial use of a sunbed that has not already done so, should inform the local authority on 01267 234567 and a visit can be arranged.