Teens deployed to try and use sunbeds in Government clampdown
Business operators who allow children to use sunbeds could spend six months in prison as the Government begins an industry crack down.
It has been illegal for anyone aged under 18 to use tanning beds since last summer, but starting today, the HSE is to start rigorously enforcing the new rules.
Teenagers will be sent out to test the rules, under guidance from the Environmental Health Services, as they try to purchase time on a sunbed.
The testers will be between 15 and 17 years old - similar to current tests run for compliance in the sale of alcohol and tobacco.
The Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, said the tests were "an extra tool in the overall enforcement programme … [to] protect young people from the dangers associated with the use of sunbeds."
“I want to stress that the objective of the test purchase programme is to ascertain whether a sunbed business is complying with the law, not to trap that business into committing an offence," he said.
"In this regard, the test purchaser must answer all questions about their age truthfully.”
The Department of Health said it has carried out 400 inspections since March 2015 to make sure sunbed businesses are complying with rules on warning signs and "notification" fees payable to the HSE.
