THE mother of a schoolgirl hospitalised after spending only 20 minutes under tanning lamps has welcomed calls for a sunbed ban for children.

A Government-appointed committee yesterday demanded a change in the law after concluding that at least 100 people are killed by sunbeds in the UK every year.

The experts called for anyone under the age of 18 to be barred by law from tanning parlours, and a total ban on unsupervised or coin-operated sunbeds, after finding that hundreds of people suffer malignant cancer or disfiguring injuries from the lamps.

The report, from the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment, said sunbeds were a serious and growing public health problem that needed to be brought under control in the same way as smoking.

Last year, The Northern Echo launched its Sunbed Safety campaign, calling for a ban on the use of solariums by under-18s, when 15-yearold Darlington schoolgirl Katie Turner needed emergency treatment after she received severe burns after spending 20 minutes under lamps at a local salon.

Her mother, Elizabeth said last night: “The Government needs to clamp down on this quickly.

“We wouldn’t allow alcohol to be sold in vending machines, because they would be unsupervised, and children would be able to buy it.

“We do we allow tanning salons to be unsupervised? Children can damage their health that way too.”

The report said there was evidence that large numbers of children used sunbeds and that the machines themselves were far more powerful and potentially dangerous than they used to be.

The committee reported that one tanning device available in the EU generated the equivalent of a year’s worth of sun in only two minutes.

Kathy Banks, chief executive of the Sunbed Association said: “We totally support a ban on unstaffed tanning salons.

“We have always supported an age restriction of no one under 16 years, not even with parental consent.

“Although unstaffed salons represent only two per cent of the total tanning outlets in the UK, where they exist they can cause a problem.

“We do not allow unstaffed salons in our membership since our code of practice requires trained staff to be on duty at all times when the premises are open to the public.”