Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Skin doctors told House lawmakers to ban tanning beds for people under 18, while a personal liberties activist argued such laws turn Idaho into a "nanny state." Similar bans are being debated in states including Washington, West Virginia and Utah. On Thursday, Blake Sampson, a University of Washington medical student working in Idaho, told the House Health and Welfare Committee he's promoting the bill because Idaho has some of the highest rates of skin cancer — and teen tanning — in America. Sampson says it's irrefutable that ultraviolet radiation increases cancer risks. Half a dozen dermatologists called this a necessary step to helping young people make healthy decisions, and another half-dozen survivors of melanoma shared their stories with the committee, often with great emotion. The Idaho Freedom Foundation's Erik Makrush said families, not well-intentioned legislators, should decide; an industry representative called the bill the most extreme she'd seen. The committee is scheduled to consider the bill, HB 486, on Monday.

Heidi Low of the American Cancer Society told the panel that 34 percent of Idaho girls have used tanning beds by age 17, and the state is "first in the nation for melanoma deaths." She said, "This bill is a step in the right direction to change this scary statistic."