The leading proponent of making America healthy again is confounding medical experts with his latest move: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just made it easier for teens to use tanning beds.
Last week, the Health Secretary withdrew a 2015 proposal by the FDA that would've banned minors from using tanning beds and required adults to sign a waiver acknowledging that indoor tanning poses risks, including skin cancer and serious burns.
Experts say that using tanning beds can triple a person's risk of developing melanoma, and the risk goes up the earlier you start using them. The Skin Cancer Foundation says that the chance of developing melanoma increases by 75 percent for people who use tanning beds before age 35; the American Academy of Dermatology notes that indoor tanning before age 20 can raise skin cancer risk by nearly 50 percent. At the same time, skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the United States, and nearly 60 percent of adult Gen Zers believe some myths about tanning, like that getting a base tan protects against sunburn.
The FDA's proposed rule received over 8,000 comments from individuals as well as cancer advocacy groups and medical and healthcare professional associations. An FDA spokesperson told NBC News that while some of the comments expressed concerns about “vulnerability of young people to the risks of sunlamp products," others supported “personal choice and parental decision-making” and were worried about “compliance burdens on small businesses.” The spokesperson told NBC News, "Withdrawal of the proposed restrictions does not mean that exposure to UV radiation does not cause skin cancer. The FDA encourages users of sunlamp products to discuss the potential risks with their physician before using sunlamp products.”
So what does this mean? We spoke to Diane S. Berson, MD, Katie's dermatologist, to get her reaction to this move and what she thinks will ultimately come out of it.
Katie Couric Media: What was your reaction to this news?
Dr. Berson: I'm really shocked that someone would try to do this. We know that tanning beds are considered to be carcinogens. When someone uses a tanning bed, they can be getting much more of an intense dose of ultraviolet light, both the UVA and the UVB rays, than from the sun. Tanning beds give the UVB equivalent of sitting out in the sun in the middle of the day at the equator. If you use a tanning bed, it will increase your chance of developing melanoma, which is a potentially fatal form of skin cancer. So I'm not sure why anyone would let their child do this.
The other thing is that tanning beds can become addictive. Research indicates that more than one-fifth of white women aged 18 to 30 who tan indoors exhibit indoor tanning dependence. And it is a known fact that people who start doing this become addicted to doing it. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, about 25 percent of those who tan indoors usually do it 25 times per year or more.
Are there any benefits of tanning beds?
There are medical uses for a specific type of light therapy — for instance, eczema or psoriasis. A tanning parlor, however, is not a medical solution. It is purely for cosmetic purposes, to make your skin turn a darker color. Again, the intensity of the bulbs is much more pronounced in indoor tanning parlors than it is when you're out in the sun.
As far as Vitamin D goes, we know that sunlight makes you feel good; there's no question about that. You can certainly get enough vitamin D from a good diet, supplements, and spending a few minutes outside. (Just make sure to wear your SPF, protective clothing, and your hat.) But you're not going to glean any medical benefit from tanning beds, and it will cause a dependency. If you needed light therapy for a medical reason, you would be told what to do and how to do it by a board-certified dermatologist.
Is there anything else we should keep in mind?
I can tell you [from my practice] there are plenty of young people developing skin cancers. Withdrawing the proposal means minors don't even have to be warned about the potential risk of developing skin cancer. The American Academy of Dermatology says that one-third of Americans developed a sunburn in 2025, with Gen Z reporting the most severe burns.
It's also worth noting that the cost of treating skin cancers due to indoor tanning is hundreds of millions of dollars a year. This is a preventable cancer. So much money could be saved by patients not developing skin cancers in the first place.
