[Mrluvaluva]

A woman from New Jersey who appears to have an obsession with fake tanning has been charged with child endangerment after taking her then five-year-old daughter into a tanning salon.

Authorities say Patricia Krentcil's daughter, now six, turned up at her primary school in Nutley, New Jersey, with a sunburn on April 24, prompting a school nurse to contact police.

The heavily-tanned mother, 44, pleaded not guilty to the charge when she appeared in a Newark courtroom on Wednesday.

Krentcil's chocolate-brown hue testifies to countless hours spent under the intense ultraviolet light of a tanning bed or out in the sun soaking up rays.

But she denied bringing her fair-skinned daughter into the tanning booth of a salon that she frequents.

"I would not permit it," she told CBS TV in New York.

The owner of City Tropics Tanning said his staff did not see Krentcil get into the stand-up booth with her daughter when she came in for an April 22 tanning session.

"Of course not," said the man, who was identified only as Anthony.

"My workers wouldn't let a child go into a tanning room. She was outside with her father," he said. "If she went into the tanning room I think she would have disintegrated. She's a little girl."

The owner said police never came in to speak with his workers about the incident.

New Jersey is among several states that have adopted regulations prohibiting anyone age 14 or under from using ultraviolet devices because of the risk of skin cancer.


Sky


Do you think we should adopt such laws?