State lawmakers advanced a pale version of a bill restricting teen tanning salon use Monday, requiring parental approval instead of a doctor's prescription.

Dr. Hunter Sams expressed disappointment over the weakening of Senate Bill 23, amended in the Senate in the face of opposition from the tanning bed industry and others.

"It's harmful for kids to get into (ultraviolet) tanning boxes," Sams, an advocate with the Colorado Dermatologic Society, told the House Health and Human Services Committee Monday. "There is no . . . safe tan."

He and other dermatology experts warned of a growing trend among youngsters nationwide of using tanning beds that emit UV radiation.

About 40 percent of high school girls have patronized a tanning salon, he said.

Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, is dramatically rising in the United States and Colorado, Sams said.

In Colorado, melanoma rates for non-Hispanic white females under age 35 have increased 30 percent in the last decade.

A young woman named Jodi Duke told lawmakers how she began using tanning salons at age 16 to get a "nice bronze."

"I eventually became addicted. I started going every day to the high-intensity beds," ignoring her parents' pleas to stop, she said.

By age 18, she was diagnosed with melanoma and underwent 52 weeks of cancer treatment, including two surgeries.

"If I can help prevent another 'invincible' teenager and their parents from meeting the same fate, then everything I have gone through was worth it," she said.

Rep. Spencer Swalm, R-Centennial, said it should not be news to anyone that "heavy sun tanning is not good for your health."

But he and two other Republicans said they believed that parents - not the state - should be looking out for their kids.

"We need to have adults in this state making adult decisions," he said.

Rep. Anne McGihon, D-Denver, co-sponsor of the bill, reminded Swalm that the amended bill leaves the responsibility with parents.

The bill was advanced on a 6-3 vote.

In other action, the House voted 64-1 to double the size of the state's "rainy day fund" to 8 percent of the general fund.

gathrighta@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5486