A 10-YEAR-OLD schoolgirl suffered burns over 70% of her body after using an unmanned tanning salon.
Kelly Thompson was rushed to the Welsh Centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery in Swansea, after spending 16 minutes on a sunbed.
No staff were on duty at the Port Talbot salon to stop her feeding £8 into the coin-operated machine during the Easter school holidays.
Kelly’s case has sparked fresh calls for a ban on all unmanned salons.
And it comes as the Health and Safety Executive is expected to announce new guidance on the use of UV tanning equipment today.
Kelly was injured just a couple of months after the Western Mail revealed how 14-year-old Kirsty McRae was hospitalised after using an unmanned sunbed in Barry.
Kelly’s mother Sharon Hannaford said: “I want the salon closed down because I know that there are other children going in there.
“Kelly could have been on that bed for even longer, if she had had more money to put into it.”
The 34-year-old mother-of-four, who lives in Port Talbot, said she had given Kelly money to go to the fair. But on finding the fair shut, Kelly and her cousin had instead spent it in the unmanned salon.
Ms Hannaford added: “Kelly was kept in hospital overnight because she was burned so badly – the doctors said that if she had stayed on the bed two minutes longer, she may have needed skin grafts.
“She had burns over 70% of her body and was off school for a week.”
Neath Port Talbot Council has launched an investigation into the incident.
It said: “Neath Port Talbot Council is investigating an incident where a 10-year-old child received severe burns after spending 16 minutes on a sunbed in an unmanned tanning salon. As a result the child spent one night in the Welsh Centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery at Morriston Hospital.”
Julie Barratt, director of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health in Wales, said: “We continue to see children being burned on sunbeds in Wales – this is becoming an all-too- frequent occurrence.
“It is clear that allowing this industry to self-regulate is not working, and unmanned sun-tanning salons are a particular problem as they are subject to no controls at all.
“The only way we can protect young people from this sort of self-inflicted damage is to control the use of sun tanning faculties by legislation and CIEH continues to press both the UK and Welsh Assembly governments to take action to protect the children of Wales.”
Jill McRae, Kirsty’s mother, said: “These sunbeds and unmanned salons pose an enormous risk to all potential users. After Kirsty was hurt our MP raised questions about unmanned salons and we received a one-line response – it felt like a brush-off, especially considering this was not the first time something like this had happened.”
Dr Jane Wilkinson, Wales’ deputy chief medical officer, said: “The Assembly Government acknowledges that the use of sun beds and other artificial tanning devices increases the risk of developing skin cancer and is particularly concerned that young people under 18 are using such tanning equipment.
“There are no existing powers for the Assembly Government to introduce regulation of the sunbed industry in Wales.
“However, the Health Minister Edwina Hart is concerned about the potential dangers of using sunbeds, particularly the use of such equipment by young people, and has asked the Department of Health to tighten regulation.
“Along with the other UK health departments, we asked the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment to update its advice regarding the safety of sunbeds. They are expected to report in the next few weeks.”
This is awful, but why was she there if the first place?
Last edited by thunder_chunky : 01-05-2009 at 12:53.
This is awful, but why the **** was a 10 year old girl in a sun bed in the first place?
Why did her parents allow this?
Why did the tanning salon allow it in the first place?
Did you even read the article you posted? It answers all those questions.
1. Kids make stupid choices every now and then, especially when what they were going to do is no longer an option.
2. Her parents didn't know (also, see above).
3. All there was to stop her was a sign.
The real questions here are more along the lines of "should unattended tanning salons be allowed?".
The real questions here are more along the lines of "should unattended tanning salons be allowed?".
I only skimmed the article, so my bad.
Anyway this question you asked is important. I think no.
I can't stand tanning booths and fake tans, I think its pretty sad but each to their own.
People do it then whinge when they get cancer.
Anyway for health and safety I would say no in response to your question.
To be quite honest, I think that if a kid's going to do something as stupid as that, then it serves them right.
Why do people tan themselves anyway? Tanning is something you do to hide.
She's a child, who probably didn't know the risks. How much did you know about sunbeds at 10 years old?
The tanning salon should have been manned, tbh.
She's a child, who probably didn't know the risks. How much did you know about sunbeds at 10 years old?
The tanning salon should have been manned, tbh.
Yeah, the tanning salon should have been manned. But she should have known from all the publicity that it's not good. And if she's done it, she's probably expressed an interest in it before doing it, so her parents will have told her not to do it. Therefore, it is as much her fault as anyone else's.
Yeah, the tanning salon should have been manned. But she should have known from all the publicity that it's not good. And if she's done it, she's probably expressed an interest in it before doing it, so her parents will have told her not to do it. Therefore, it is as much her fault as anyone else's.
As a child, her behaviour is learned. She's therefore more susceptible to influence from celebrities/older girls, for example, who have used tanning salons.
Just because she's done it, doesn't necessarily mean she's expressed an interest in it before. Children do do things they don't fully understand, on the spur of the moment, you know. The fair was cancelled, and so she was looking for something else to do... the tanning salon may just have been the first place she came across.
I wouldn't be angry at the child about going there, but more at the salon for being unmanned. Its awful that something dangerous like this can be unmanned...
the place is literally 5 mins from my house, I always see underage people in there. They suddenly put up an "OVER 16'S ONLY!" massive sign up yesterday though, what a coincidence 8-)
I wouldn't be angry at the child about going there, but more at the salon for being unmanned. Its awful that something dangerous like this can be unmanned...
Good God, poor kid. Although she must have had some idea of the risk. Of course it shouldn't have been unmanned though. I'm suprised that tanning places don't have an ID policy or anything.
I've never used a sunbed or fake tan and I can honestly say that I do not care at all about the fact that I am pale! Years ago when these shops weren't on every high street nobody seemed to care. It's a bit sad that a ten year old kid feels the need to scorch her skin in the apparent name of beauty.
she shouldn't have been so stupid, she shouldn't been using one anyway, its her own fault and her parents shouldn't have allowed her to go, there is no common sense any more
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Girl, 10, suffered 70% burns from a sunbed
Exactly.
