New Jersey tanning ‘addict’ accused of putting 6-year-old in tanning bed

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An absurdly tanned New Jersey woman appeared in court on Wednesday to defend herself against a charge of child endangerment, filed after school officials noticed her 6-year-old daughter had come to school with burns on her skin.

Asked by officials where she got the burns, the girl reportedly said, “I go tanning with mommy.”

Patricia Krentcil, 44, denies the claim, but admits that she brings her daughter to the tanning salon. She told a reporter with CBS New York that while she may be “addicted” to tanning, her daughter instead got a sunburn while playing outside.

The state of New Jersey, where tanning is immensely popular due to the highly-rated show Jersey Shore, bans anyone under 14-years-old from using tanning beds.

The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer found in 2009 that people who use tanning beds before age 30 increase their chance of developing the deadly skin cancer melanoma by 75 percent.

This video is from CBS News, published Wednesday, May 2, 2012.

Photo: Screenshot via CBS New York.