On Monday, the Chapel Hill Town Council will hear a petition against apartment complexes offering free tanning bed use as an incentive to new tenants.

The request comes from UNC School of Public Health Junior Alana Zeitany, whose major is nutrition.

“I was talking with my mom about living situations, and where I wanted to live,” said Zeitany. “When we were looking at the amenities for some of the apartments we were looking into, they had free tanning beds offered as one of their amenities – most of the newer, nicer, more attractive ones for students.

“And my mom made a statement – ‘That should be illegal, that they offer free tanning.’ To me, it’s like giving away cigarettes for free, if you’ll live in our apartment.”

Zeitany said that she and her sister, who is now a medical student at UNC, used to tan a lot as teenagers back home in Wallburg, North Carolina.

She said that when her sister later warned her of the danger of developing skin cancer from tanning, she stopped. She said she’d like others of her generation to be aware of the dangers as well.

“Melanoma can develop in young adults,” said Zeitany, “but it can also develop with time, and more and more sun exposure. So, I think that when our generation gets to be 40, 50, 60, that we’re going to have more instances of melanoma, because of how popular tanning has become.”

Zeitany said she’d like to see apartment complexes regulated as strictly as tanning salons, when offering the same service.

Monday night’s meeting of the Chapel Hill Town Council takes place at 7 at the Town Hall Council Chamber, located at 405 Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.

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