Thursday 19 February 2009

A Burning Issue


One could almost hear the collective outrage as the BBC screened this story on the evening news tonight.

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.


Oh. My. God. The poor child, won't somebody please etc etc etc.

James Hadley, who owns Lextan, the salon which Kirsty used, said he was operating within the law. 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.


More righteous tearing out of hair. No-one? The poor child, won't somebody etc etc etc.

Back home in Barry on Thursday, the teenager said she took full responsibility for the fact that she should not have been in the salon because she was under 16.


Oh I see. She shouldn't have been there. There were warnings plastered all over the walls, but she ignored them. Good. Hope she suffers, it'll teach her a valuable lesson for the future. Story over then ...

... or, perhaps not.

But she said there should be more controls on who is using the salons.


Err ... pardon? You're 14! When did you become the authority on such things?

"Teenagers are going to push the boundaries. They are going to do things they should not do."


Yes, and when they get burned by being stupid and disobeying the rules, they learn to their cost that the rules are there for a reason. Life has always been that way. It is a perfect example of the saying "getting one's fingers burned". It is nature's way of using pain to warn us that we're being fucking stupid.

But, hold on again, what's this?

Mrs McRae, a health and safety officer, agreed that her daughter was partly responsible for her condition.


Partly? No partly about it. Entirely is the word I think you were searching for. But then, as a fucking health and safety officer, you are paid to apportion blame to anyone and everyone except those who have messed up, aren't you? This is just an extra-curricular 'mates' rates' job.

But she said there should be much more regulation of the salons.

She said she did not believe, even at 16 that teenagers were mature enough to understand the risks they were taking by using these salons.


Again. If they can read, the risks are explained. If they choose to ignore them? Tough.

It's sad that 'Health and safety officer in calls for more restrictions on tanning shops shocker' is not even raising eyebrows here. If I was a cynical person, I'd be smelling something very fishy about it all.

The Vale of Glamorgan council said it was sorry to hear about the incident and a health and safety investigation was underway at the salon.

"The council is extremely concerned about unmanned tanning salons but there is no current legislation in Wales relating to such premises," said principal environmental health officer Rowan Hughes.

Julie Barratt, director of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, said it had been calling for unmanned tanning salons to be banned for some time.

The Welsh Assembly Government said it was concerned that young people under the age of 18 were using such tanning facilities but it did not have the power to introduce regulation of the sunbed industry.

However, a spokeswoman said Health Minister Edwina Hart had asked the Department of Health to tighten regulation of the use of artificial tanning devices.


My! This case was rather handy for quite a few authorities, it appears.

Also for the BBC. The trail had run a bit cold since they reported a similar story just three days after carrying Cancer Research UK's annual crusade against tanning.

Perhaps I'm just being idealistic myself, but it all smacks of more approaching state intervention (which will no doubt be well over the top), helpfully stirred up by Comrade Beeb, resulting in more stifling regulation of business, whilst simultaneously excusing crass stupidity.




5 comments:

Witterings from Witney said...

Dick,
Never mind "getting one's fingers burned", hopefully she got her arse burned too!!

Gordon said...

Twat of the highest order (and her daughter is too). Apparantly at 16 you're too stupid to understand tanning but legally allowed to have babies. Let's start raising the age of consent to 18 for the good of the unborn children and watch the lefties get all worked up (in a way they didn't over cigarettes) - bastards, all of them

John Pickworth said...

I watched this story on the Beeb too...

I liked the part where the Mother said something like "The place is unmanned, so God knows how long she might have been stuck in there if she needed help..."

I shouted at the TV (never sure if that helps but I keep on doing it any way) "She'd be stuck for precisely the time it took her to reach the shop door and shout 'Ouch!' into the crowded High Street. She just had sun burn for crying out loud!"

banned said...

Have to disagree with you on this one Dick, we don't allow children access to unsupervised swimming pools for the same reason that they should not be allowed access to unsupervised tanning salons. I've never used such a salon but I imagine it is difficult to know when you have had too much of a good thing.
Thanks for the transcript, saved me the pain of listening to them bleating.

I would agree that the girl is a silly cow though, didn't even take her bra off.

Stop Hitting Me Officer said...

Aren't we forgetting that this young lady's career has been blighted? Without a tan how is she going to attract the attentions of her fellow fouteen year-olds? She may never get pregnant in time in order to be able to become a priority on the housing list and/or sell her story to the tabloids before she leaves skool.

Ahem. Here goes: in my day, if I'd been a girlie (which I wasn't and am not now) and if there'd been tanning salons (which there weren't) and if I'd done something as stupid as this (the equivalents of which I did do, then my parents first comment would have been to me when I got home. 'Have you learned your lesson?' Then they would have breathed a sigh of relief and been more strict with me for a long time regarding my whereabouts until they felt they could trust me again.

The world is NOT one big nursery or playschool for the benefit or entertainment of children. It bites. Learn to be careful so that, when your're an adult, you can play nicely with grown-up's toys.