 by Robert Wagner, AEGIS |
|
| Shocking
The Monkey European tanning magazine promotes the negative, thrusts spear in the side of the industry “over there” |
It is already well known that European Union bureaucrats enacted a law that mandates a total UV output reduction of tanning machines from 70 milliwatts per square centimeter down to a meager 30. We are also quite aware of what the ultimate economic impact of longer and more expensive tanning sessions will mean to the commercial sector, and how the numerous trade associations throughout the continent and Great Britain were absolutely powerless to fight back. Now, with salon owners in Germany, Italy and Holland literally quaking over the future of their collective livelihoods, the Publisher of Tanning Journal Magazine decides to pour gasoline on the open wound by dedicating its latest issue to, of all things, second-guessing how the various member countries will enforce the new law.
In the May-June 2007 issue of Tanning Journal, a full four pages discuss, in bright detail, the shortfalls of the new regulations, even going so far as suggesting the enactment of further laws, thereby providing local health authorities with a virtual guidance document on how to seek out and punish “violators.” The un-authored article isn’t just a Rosetta Stone for avaricious, socialist government agents itching to teach the pretty capitalists of indoor tanning a lesson, but also serves to stoke the fires of depression building among the already beleaguered salon owners, distributors and equipment manufacturers. In all my years as a writer and researcher I have never, ever seen such a blatant, naive disservice done to an industry down on its luck. Tanning Journal may just as well have emailed pictures of its bare buttocks to every regulator in Europe.
I’m reminded of the problems that began here in this country in 1994 after another wayward magazine posted a Pinocchio-nosed caricature of an anti-tanning doctor on its front page, inviting the ire of state health officials, which ultimately resulted in a proposed ban on under-18 tanning in California. Banging pots and pans at the cave entrance of hibernating grizzly bears in April as a more environmentally-friendly way of handling Caribou overpopulation is one thing, but actually going inside the den and poking their butts with pitchforks will invariably result in less-than-desirous effects. In days long gone, an unwritten rule existed that obliged those in the media to avoid harming those whom they portend to inform. Claiming ignorance of the law won’t sway a traffic court judge, so how can, “Ooh, ooh – we didn’t realize what we were doing!” be any more acceptable in this instance? They may claim that editorializing in a foreign language is their excuse…well, to that this American says “Nuts!”
Bob
Wagner has been
Island Sun Times International Correspondent for seven years.
His company, AEGIS REGULATORY, is a medical device consultancy
serving
both the Food & Drug Administration and private
industry, including producers of
indoor suntanning equipment.