ELLICOTT CITY, Md. -- Officials in one Maryland county have voted to ban people under age 18 from using indoor tanning devices, the first such ban in the country, WBAL in Baltimore reported.

The unanimous vote was taken Tuesday by the Howard County Board of Health.

Health Officer Dr. Peter Beilenson introduced the regulations in September.

The county has 17 salons that are strictly for tanning, and there are hundreds of other sites that have tanning beds.

The Indoor Tanning Association said it believes the ban will put some places out of business, but health officials said it's about saving lives.

"With melanoma now being the leading cause of cancer in the world, how could I do anything but support our health officer in this undertaking to be one of the first to ban tanning for minors?" County Executive Ken Ulman said in September.

The bans take effect Thursday.

Beilenson said he thinks, given current research, that the ban is the right thing to do.

"People under the age of 35 who are exposed to indoor tanning have a 75 percent increased risk of skin cancer, and the younger you are exposed to indoor tanning, the greater your risk of getting potentially fatal melanoma," he said. The information came from a study from the World Health Association.

Those in the tanning industry feel there's already enough oversight with a new state law requiring parental consent to tan.

"Without your parent's consent, you can get a tattoo, you can get piercings, but they seem to think tanning is more important to ban," said Joy Diamond, who has owned Place in the Sun tanning salon in Ellicott City for 25 years