(KCEN) -- A Texas lawmaker wants to put a minimum age on tanning, to protect young teens from getting skin cancer later in life.
For some people looking sun-kissed in the winter months means a trip to the tanning bed.
But too much time under the UV lights in your teenage years can lead to skin cancer as you age.
TX State Representative John Zerwas says, "The evidence is so clear, and evident in terms of what the increased risk is for subsequent development of skin cancer.
Zerwas wants to change the rules.
Right now you have to be 16-and-half-years-old to get into a tanning bed and under 18 you need parental consent.
Zerwas wants to treat tanning like buying cigarettes and make the legal age 18.
"MD Anderson came to me. And the dermatological society came to me. So there is really a strong consensus around this at least around the medical community," says Zerwas.
The measure wouldn't apply to spray tanning.
Leslie and Terry Lopez of the Tan Bar in Dallas say, "The bill wouldn't bother their business since their younger customers prefer spray tanning booth to tanning beds."
"Our business has grown since we started. More and more kids that are younger are coming in," Leslie says.
And what kind of tanning are they getting?
"Custom airbrush only, and ours is all organic."
