Norway can become the third country in the world that bans solariums, as a new strategy to reduce the number of skin cancer cases in the country.
Skin cancer is among the cancer forms that have increased most in Norway in recent decades. Leukemia, the most serious form of skin cancer, takes 300 lives in Norway each year, according to NRK.
A new national working group consisting of experts from, among others, Statens strålevern (Norwegian Radiation Protection Agency) and Helsedirektoratet (Norwegian Directorate of Health) has delivered a strategy to the Ministry of Health in order to reverse the trend and reduce the number of skin cancer cases in Norway.
One of the objectives of the working group is to investigate the use of solariums in Norway.
– Solarium is not the most important cause, but it is one of several reasons. It is well documented that people who use the solarium regularly have an increased risk of having skin cancer, “says Petter Gjersvik, professor of skin diseases at Oslo University Hospital to NRK.
Want ban on 5500 solariums in Norway and their advertisement
The working group has suggested four main actions that they believe will bring down the gloomy statistics. As a part of the action plan, they want a concrete assessment of the total ban on solariums.
They demand to set up a professional working group by June 2019 with a mandate to investigate a ban on all solariums in Norway by 2020.
By introducing a possible ban, Norway will become the third country in the world intorudcing no-solarium policy. Today, only Brazil and Australia prohibit its residents from visiting solarium.
Meanwhile, the working group want a ban on advertising solariums and stricter requirements for hazard labeling on the solariums studios.
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