The majority of Australian states and territories are banning commercial tanning beds due to skin cancer threats starting from Thursday in "the sunburnt country" which has one of the highest rates of melanoma in the world.

The legislation will come into force in the states of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, Queensland and in the Australian Capital Territory on January 1, 2015.
Western Australia said it is also going to prohibit solariums. However the state hasn't yet announced a start date. The Northern Territory is the only part of the country where there are no commercial sunbeds.

The ban was welcomed by Cancer Council Australia, a national group aiming to promote cancer-control policies and to reduce the incidence of cancer in the country.

According to the interim Minister of Health Mark McArdle the ban follows the concerns about the link between solarium use and skin cancer.

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Australia is not the first country to ban tanning beds. In 2003 Brazil outlawed sunbeds for minors, then expanded it to all ages in 2009.

Indoor tanning is banned for minors in Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Iceland, Norway and Lithuania.