CANCER Research UK is to unite with tanning salons to crack down on the industry’s “rogue operators”.

Amid a growing skin cancer epidemic in the UK, the charity – the world’s biggest cancer research organisation – has agreed for the first time to work formally with the sunbed watchdog to ensure stricter regulation for studios.

Until now, Cancer Research UK has taken a hard line with salons, believing the sector to be guilty of cashing in while young people’s health is put at risk. But under a new partnership with The Sunbed Association, to be cemented at a summit in London a week tomorrow, the two bodies will hammer out a plan to make the industry safer.

Both say they are committed to ending the use of sunbeds by under-16s and are to step up a campaign to ban unstaffed coin-operated salons, the majority of which are in Scotland. Sara Hiom, co- ordinator of the charity’s Sunsmart campaign, said: “Cancer Research UK feels to call for a ban on sunbeds altogether would be unrealistic and not possible to police.

“We would like to see strict guidelines wherever sunbed facilities are offered. This should include a list of those people most at risk and strongly advising them against it.”

The Sunbed Association’s code of practice prohibits the use of tanning beds by children, but because the body represents just 25% of the UK’s 8000 salons there is a worry many unregulated premises indulge in dangerous practices.

A Sunday Herald invest igation found only five of Scotland’s 32 local authorities required tanning studios to be regulated. Some councils were not even sure how many salons were operating in their area.

The findings come in the wake of research by the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland last November, which revealed a host of problems with salons, including instances where people had been burned after becoming trapped in their sunbed.

On one occasion, a user had to be helped out of a salon by a firefighters after a blaze broke out in the tanning studio. She had been unaware the building was on fire.

Kathy Banks, chief executive of The Sunbed Association, branded many in the industry “rogue operators” and called for a ban on all unmanned, coin-operated salons. She said: “There are 50 unstaffed salons in the UK and, unfortunately, Scotland has the majority. We refuse to allow them to be members of the association because they cannot meet our basic criteria. We would like to see them closed down.

“All respectable salons should offer a skin analysis and a questionnaire to establish your skin type and work out a programme that’s right for you. They should also refuse to admit people under 16. But, like any industry, you are going to get rogue operators.”

Dr Jamie Inglis, a consultant in public health medicine at NHS Health Scotland, warned that fair-skinned Scots were particularly vulnerable to the dangers of sunbeds. He said the rise of cheap package holidays abroad and the fashion of having an all-over tan, especially among young girls, had contributed to a “developing epidemic” of skin cancer.

Between 1995 and 2000 cases of malignant melanoma – the potentially fatal form of skin cancer – has increased by 24%.

“Skin cancer is now the most common type of cancer in Scotland, with 140 people diagnosed with the condition each week. It’s a developing epidemic. It is clear that many young women are becoming psychologically dependent on the machines.

“Every time you go on a sunbed you’re damaging the skin. Five minutes on a machine is like a week in the sun and one episode of burning doubles your risk of skin cancer. You’re really frying your skin.”

Concern about the levels of skin cancer in Scotland has led to a bill being drafted by Kenny Macintosh, the Labour MSP for Eastwood, to regulate the industry. Under the bill, which could become law next year, all studios would be licensed, staffed and forced to provide information to all users. Users under 16 would be banned.

The epidemic has also led to Helen Eadie, the Labour MSP to initiate a conference on the issue in Edinburgh next month.

Antony Young, a professor at King’s College London, said there was “increasing compelling evidence” that malignant melanoma could be linked to sunbed use. He added: “People still know very little about the hazards of tanning. Too often the offers that the salons have don’t appear to be safe.”

Despite the concern over the coin-operated, unstaffed studios, those who operate them say people should have no safety concerns. Otto Hansen, managing director of Consol Suncenter (Scotland) Ltd – which runs 25 coin-operated salons in Scotland – said: “We are installing a skin measurement in all our studios. But you can’t protect against idiots.”