Senate Bill S6205

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S6205

 TITLE OF BILL :

An act to amend the general business law, in relation to the use of
live fish in pedicure procedures


 PURPOSE :

Bans the use of live fish in pedicure procedures.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Section 1 adds a new § 404-b to the General Business Law that
prohibits appearance enhancement businesses from performing pedicure
procedures using live fish. This section imposes a civil penalty of no
more than $250 for the first offense and makes any subsequent offenses
a class B misdemeanor.

Section 2 provides for an effective date 180 days after this bill
becomes law.

 JUSTIFICATION :

In July 2008 a beauty salon in Alexandria, Virginia, became the first
              

in the United States to offer a procedure termed a "fish pedicure".
In this procedure, customers place their feet in a tank filled with
small fish. The fish proceed to eat the dead flaky skin of the feet,
which supposedly leads to smoother skin. This idea originated in
Turkey many years ago and then spread to Japan, then China and the
rest of the Far East.

This procedure does not conform with the spirit of current standards
of hygiene and sanitation at beauty enhancement businesses in New York
State.  Given the exotic nature of this procedure, current rules and
regulations do not address the many sanitary and hygienic concerns
that stem from this practice. There have been reports linking this
procedure to fungal infections in Singapore. Tools used in
cosmetological procedures must be sanitized thoroughly according to
New York State regulations, but it is impossible to sanitize small
fish without destroying them. The spread of deadly bacteria such as
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MSRA) is known to be a
possibility if pedicure procedures do not conform to strict sanitary
guidelines. Concerns about sanitation have led over fourteen states,
including Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Illinois, Texas, and Florida
to ban this procedure.

Troubling questions are also raised about what happens if the action
of these fish cause an individual to bleed into the water, either due
to the accidental opening of pre-existing wounds or lesions, or from a
fish bite, since some of the small fish used in these procedures can
grow teeth as they age, allowing them to bite hard enough to draw
blood.

There are also concerns about the treatment of the fish themselves.
This skin eating behavior in the wild is the result of fish living in
nutrient poor environments - these fish attack the skin out of
desperation for food. It would be inhumane to keep animals in a state
of starvation in order to have them become more effective exfoliating
agents. There are also concerns about what is to become of the fish
after they are no longer useful for this procedure and how business
would care for them or dispose of them.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :
New bill.
 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :
None to the state.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect on the hundred eightieth day after it shall
become law.