A popular natural lifestyle blogger has ridiculed California’s recent legislative ban of indoor tanning for those under 18 years of age, asking, “What’s next, shutting down the beaches on sunny days?”

John Durant, whose “Hunter-Gatherer” blog promotes common sense lifestyle practices based on human design, slammed California legislators for ignoring natural evolution and making a politically motivated decision rather than scientifically valid policy.

“It’s far from clear that tanning bed usage is a primary driver in the rise in melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer,” Durant writes, pointing out that California Sen. Ted Lieu mis-stated research findings to promote his bill. Durant pointed to one study suggesting tanning beds increased melanoma risk by 74 percent (a result that didn’t compensate for confounding information). Of that paper Durant says, “This 74% higher risk from tanning beds was exceeded by blonde hair (117%) and dwarfed by red hair (253%), very fair skin (450%), and having moles (1,281%). That’s a huge flaw in this research — it doesn’t focus on the most important risk factors to help us understand the phenomenon of skin cancer, it is out to prove a point about a pet cause: tanning beds.”

Durant continued, “Another flaw is that few of these studies ever mention any of the benefits of sun or — heaven forbid — tanning salons. Shouldn’t California at least go through a cost-benefit analysis? Are there other types of cancer that might be decreasing with UV exposure? Maybe so, maybe not — but don’t you think we should look?”

On top of it all, Durant writes, “All this neglects the broader point that people should have the choice to live as they see fit, as long as they aren’t harming anyone else.”

To read Durant’s Hunter-Gatherer blog click here.