One day, two new taxes

It recently got more expensive to hurt yourself.

South Carolina's 50 cents-a-pack cigarette tax hike went into effect at the beginning of the month, and so did the nation's 10 percent tax on tanning bed services.

Melanoma, lung cancer and heart disease might have lost some of their edge.

Or not.

While some studies have suggested that smokers will cut back on their habit when prices go up, it's unclear that a tax will deter tan-hungry teens from paying for ultraviolet tanning sessions.

Like smokers in South Carolina, tanners and tanning salon owners throughout the nation aren't happy about the changes.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the tanning tax, designed to help pay for Congress' health care overhaul, is confusing and arbitrary in what services are targeted. For example, a customer at a tanning salon will have to pay the 10 percent tax. But someone who buys a tanning session at a physical fitness facility won't.

In contrast, South Carolina's cigarette tax hike is staightforward. Buy cigarettes and pay the additional tax.

Those trying to raise revenue for health care in a faltering economy welcome the money both taxes will produce. The tanning tax will produce an estimated $2.5 billion over the next decade. The cigarette tax hike is expected to bring in $136 million to South Carolina over the next 12 months.

Doctors welcome the possibility that some tanners and smokers will become ex-tanners and ex-smokers.

Will it happen? Time will tell.

Meanwhile, we might recommend teens use tinted lotions on their uv-starved shoulders.

And for smokers, there's the patch.