A health and safety investigation has been launched after a 14-year old girl suffered burns over 70% of her body using an unstaffed tanning salon. Kirtsy McRae was put on a hospital drip after spending £4 for 19 minutes on a coin-operated sunbed this month. However, James Hadley, who owns Lextan, the salon in question, said he was operating within the law.
The girl, who was on half-term, originally put £1 into a sunbed at Lextan, but felt she was not tanned enough, so paid another £3 for a further 15 minutes. No-one was at the salon to prevent her from using the beds or stop her from using the booth for as long as she did. She left the salon in pain and was later taken to hospital where doctors told her she had suffered first degree burns, the lowest level of skin burn. She was put on a drip and given oxygen while doctors rehydrated her and administered painkillers.
Back home in Barry, Wales, the teenager took full responsibility for the fact that she should not have been in the salon because she was under 16, but argued that there should be more controls on who is using the salons. The girls mother, a health and safety officer, said she was able to identify the symptoms that her daughter was displaying and to recognise that she was suffering from superficial burns, heat stroke and going into shock. "Had I not had that knowledge I would have been absolutely terrified to see what she was going through."
The Health and Safety Executive advise under-16s not to use cosmetic tanning equipment and said further guidance would be published in March in response to public concerns about safety at tanning salons, especially those which are unstaffed.
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