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Fri, Oct 10, 2008
The Straits Times

DALLAS: Letting live fish give people pedicures could transmit infections, say the authorities in Washington and Texas, and the spa treatment is now banned in the two American states.

The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation announced on Wednesday that fish pedicures - in which customers pay to have tiny fish nibble dead skin off their feet - are no longer permitted in the state, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The regulatory authorities in Washington state imposed a similar ban last week, said Seattle Times.

Ms Christine Anthony, spokesman for the Washington Department of Licensing, said it was impossible to sanitise live fish.

‘You can clean the tank, you can clean the water, but there’s no guarantee that the fish aren’t carrying something from the previous customer,’ she was quoted as saying by Seattle Times.

Officials also said the foot baths and holding tanks, because they are home to live fish, cannot always be properly cleaned and disinfected.

However, they said there had been no cases of anyone falling sick from a fish pedicure.

‘We are erring on the side of safety,’ said Ms Susan Stanford of the Texas licensing department.

This particular pedicure is a new entrant in American spas. It first gained attention after a Virginia-based spa told the media this summer about the benefits of using the fish instead of razors to slough away scales and calluses, the news reports said. Heavy media coverage followed.

The owner of Peridot Nail Salon, the only salon in Washington known to be offering the treatment, told Seattle Times she was ’shocked and surprised and disappointed’ by the ban.

Ms Tweety Bui said the salon started offering the pedicures only last month, charging US$30 (S$44) for 15 minutes. The phone had been ‘ringing off the hook’ with calls for appointments, she said, with about 20 sessions booked for last weekend alone.

‘I’m booked two months out,’ Ms Bui told Seattle Times. Her staff have been calling clients to cancel the appointments. ‘I am so overwhelmed with all this that it’s not even funny.’

At the Zen Luxury Nail & Beauty Bar in North Texas, co-owner Kate Caldwell told Dallas Morning News she shut down her fish tanks after being informed of the ban by the state authorities. The shop had bought 500 guppy-like fish for US$2,500.

‘I am pretty disappointed,’ Ms Caldwell said.

She claimed that her salon had a rigorous safety protocol to avoid putting customers at risk. After each pedicure, she said, the foot basins are emptied and cleaned with a disinfectant. During that cleaning, she said, the fish are transferred to a ‘hospital tank’, where they are treated with an anti-microbial agent and isolated for at least a day.

Both spa owners said they would probably keep the fish as pets for now.

‘We have fish food,’ said Ms Bui.