State Assembly Passes Pedicure Safety Bill

Aug. 31 - BCN - Legislation is headed for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk that would strengthen sanitary standards for pedicure providers and increase fines for noncompliance, following reports of skin infections linked to Northern California salons.

AB 409, which passed the state Assembly Wednesday on a 55-20 vote, was re-introduced as urgency legislation by Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, according to his spokesman Adam Keigwin, in response to recent allegations that a Sunnyvale woman died in June from a pedicure-related infection.

The legislation would establish minimum cleaning requirements for pedicure equipment and increase fines up to $500 per unsanitary foot-spa chair, as well as authorize the state barbering and cosmetology board to immediately suspend a business' license without an advance hearing, if violations discovered pose a significant threat to public health and safety.
In Santa Clara County in 2004, an outbreak affected a total of 143 customers traced back to 33 different salons, all of which had improperly washed foot-spas that harbored transmittable bacteria, according to the state regulatory board.
In 2000, more than 100 customers developed skin boils after visits to a single Watsonville salon, the state regulatory board reported.

The bill would go into effect immediately if approved by the governor, who has until Sept. 30 to sign the bill, according to Keigwin.
The governor has vetoed similar legislation before, however, in his veto memo, he requested that the Department of Consumer Affairs develop a "working group on footspa safety."
Department of Consumer Affairs Director Charlene Zettel in June unveiled the working group's recommendations including new cleaning requirements and increasing fines, which are incorporated in Yee's bill.

The bill's crafters originally wanted to include a provision that would require businesses found in violation to post a sign on their doors explaining the infractions. However, Kiegwin said the governor indicated he would veto such a bill because it would be unfair to businesses that corrected the violation immediately, but could not remove the sign until the next inspection.