The role of public health advocacy in achieving an outright ban on commercial tanning beds in Australia.

Although many countries still face opposition to the legislation of artificial tanning beds, all Australian states and territories have announced a total ban on commercial tanning beds. A combination of epidemiological and policy-centered research, powerful personal stories, and the active advocacy of prominent academics, cancer organizations, and grassroots community campaigners contributed to the decisions to first legislate standards and then ban all commercial tanning beds. We have illustrated that incremental change can be an effective pathway to securing substantial public health reforms.

Sometimes it takes a loss of life to make a difference.

Media coverage of one death from melanoma helped spur on Australian legislation on sunbeds, but the groundwork had already been laid