The BC Health Authority has done an apparent about-face on a decision it made last year, to allow spa owner Dixie Simpson to offer "fish pedicures".Fish pedicures are a popular procedure in which clients place their feet in pools of water containing Garra Rufa rish. The fish are similar in size to minnows. They do not have teeth, but gulp up dead skin cells off the customer's feet.
The practise was first popularized in Turkey, as a means of alleviating the symptoms of psoriasis and eczema. In more recent years, it has become a popular feature in spas world wide, including France, Japan and the UK.
Dixie Simpson first began offering the service in her spa in Duncan, BC last year. She says she contacted the health authority to ensure everything was above board. The health authority gave her the go ahead.
But, in the last few weeks, the BC Health Authority has changed their mind, stating that the practise is not sanitary, despite the fact that Dixie uses UV filtration systems. The health authority feels there are potential chances for bacterial infections to be passed on from one customer to another, and so, they have since classified the Garra Rufa fish as "tools" of the spa owner. Under BC law, any "tools" used in a spa must be sterilized between customers.
Obviously, since they are live fish, it is impossible to sterilize them without killing them.
Dixie says that she will have no choice but to shut down if she can't use her fish for foot therapy.
The actual real risk is patients is low if not negligible. Why not just insist that the spa operators have customers read and sign a waiver stating the risks and reducing the liability of the spa owner?
Frankly, if your not allowed to dip your feet in a pool with harmless fish that can be found in spas around the world, one has to question the amount of government control being exorcised.
Do you know if Fish therapy is banned in Alberta as well?!
ReplyDeleteI am not sure that fish therapy is outright banned in Alberta.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I believe the Alberta Health Code is open enough for the health authority to make things very difficult for spa owners here in Alberta.
To my knowledge, there has been only one spa in Alberta that was offering this service. A spa in Edmonton called the Garra Rufa Day Spa.
They have a blog which hasn't been updated since May of 2010, and the most recent posting said they were not open to the public at the time, and were working with the Health Board to keep things going.
http://garrarufaedmonton.blogspot.com/ is the blog name. Perhaps check out the blog and see if you can contact the spa owner.
If you are interested in opening such a spa in Alberta, I recommend you contact your regional health board and ask what parameters need to be met. Also, keep in mind that Health Board guidelines can change at any time.
typacal of north american goverments, to be healhy and injoy a free life in canada if the gov. doesnt understand it , which they dont understand anything about anything, except keep the people down remove all our freedom and let us pay for fucked up ,overpriced ,and murderous drugs. or let us heal ourselvles with the spendid help of our true nature,mother nature. get off your kick back payments and let us be happy healhey and free, last time I checked this was not a comunist country. all of our ancesters would be sickened if they knew they gave their lives for what our gov. tries to make us believe this is freedom? yours truly A CANADIAN.
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