For decades, celebrities helped make smoking glamorous, so much so that filmmakers made a movie about it. Cigarettes were the stuff of romance, but as research found in the latter part of the 20th century, cigarettes were also the stuff of cancer. Today, history is repeating itself, as the bright lights of scrutiny have a new focus: indoor tanning.

After years of celebrity following, tanning, too, is developing a reputation as a carcinogen. Parents and many others are concerned, and last week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held a hearing to discuss the issue. Panel members considered nationalizing a law, already enacted by several states, that requires parental permission for minors, but a 2008 study found such laws had no significant influence on teenage tanning rates between 1998 and 2004. Thursday’s panel instead recommended an outright ban for minors, which it will soon present to the FDA.

There’s plenty other research to back the claims that tanning beds are highly carcinogenic. A 2003 study found that women ages 20-29 who tanned indoors at least once a month had two-and-a-half times the risk of developing melanoma. In 2007, the World Health Organization (WHO) conducted a review and estimated that tanning bed exposure before age 35 increased melanoma risk by 75%. Two years later, the WHO deemed tanning a carcinogen on par with asbestos and — you guessed it — cigarettes.

The similarities don’t end there, of course. According to a recent study, the advertising strategies of the tanning and smoking industries share eerie similarities: both have claimed that research on safety is exaggerated, featured doctors as supporters, and pushed ‘healthier’ versions of their products. Resistance, however, is growing. In January members of Congress introduced a more stringent ‘Tanning Bed Cancer Control Act’ that would increase federal oversight. And last week saw the passage of a 10% federal ‘sin’ tax on indoor tanning.

Only time will tell, though, if the nation’s youth make the same mistakes as their parents and grandparents did with cigarettes, ignoring the research while they instead admire their (literally) golden idols. The cast of ‘Jersey Shore,’ for example, has popularized the “GTL” mantra (for the uninitiated, that’s “Gym. Tan. Laundry.”) We can only hope that — like the show — it doesn’t stick around too long.

Image by Evil Erin via Flickr Creative Commons