BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 1168 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 2, 2013 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HEALTH Richard Pan, Chair AB 1168 (Pan) - As Introduced: February 22, 2013 SUBJECT : Safe body art. SUMMARY : Makes a number of technical and clarifying changes to existing law governing practitioners engaged in the business of body art in California. Specifically, this bill : 1)Includes in the definition of a body art facility a specified building, section of a building, or vehicle in which a practitioner demonstrates body art for the purpose of instruction. 2)Requires personal medical information gathered from a customer prior to the performance of body art to comply with existing federal privacy law established under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. 3)Prohibits the performance of body art at any location other than a permanent or temporary body art facility that has been approved and inspected by the local environmental health department (LEHD). 4)Deletes the requirement for practitioners who are initially registering with the LEHD to provide evidence of at least six months of related experience as there is no standard definition of what constitutes experience. 5)Authorizes a LEHD to suspend or revoke the permit of a body art facility if a person who does not possess a valid practitioner registration is allowed to perform body art. 6)Clarifies floor, wall, and ceiling surface requirements for permanent body art facilities and requires these facilities to have adequate restroom facilities. 7)Authorizes the LEHD to determine the amount of separation between the procedures area of a body art facility and the areas of the facility not related to body art. 8)Deletes the requirement for the decontamination and AB 1168 Page 2 sterilization areas of a body art facility to have sharps containers because these areas primarily deal with reusable equipment, not sharps. 9)Specifies that only service animals, as defined by the federal Americans for Disabilities Act, are allowed in certain areas of a body art facility. 10)Deletes the requirement for temporary body art facilities to have eye wash stations because no such requirement exists for permanent body art facilities and these stations are not required in the performance of body art. 11)Makes other minor technical and clarifying changes. EXISTING LAW : 1)Requires, effective July 1, 2012, LEHDs to register practitioners and issue permits to body art facilities annually following a site visit and review of specified documentation, such as infection control plans. 2)Establishes a framework under which body art practitioners qualify to provide services, including, among other things, requirements for training, health and safety practices, documentation handling and storage, and inspection compliance. 3)Imposes specified prohibitions on body art practices, including limitations on customers with regard to age and medical condition, and requires informed consent to be given and a signed consent form to be retained prior to the provision of body art services. FISCAL EFFECT : None COMMENTS : 1)PURPOSE OF THIS BILL . According to the sponsor, the California Association of Environmental Health Administrators, which represents all 62 LEHDs with body art safety inspectors, this bill is intended as a clean-up measure to make several technical, non-controversial clarifications to the state's existing body art statutes. The sponsor states that this bill contains a number of relatively small but important AB 1168 Page 3 operational and structural refinements based on input from practitioners and regulators in the field that are needed to ensure effective and efficient implementation of the state's body art laws. The sponsor notes that, among other things, this bill will remove an unenforceable apprenticeship requirement as both regulators and industry practitioners agree that there are no standards to verify what constitutes "experience;" require practitioners to comply with federal privacy laws when obtaining a customer's confidential medical information; clarify that sharps containers are not required in decontamination and sterilization areas of a facility because all sharps waste is gathered at the procedure area; and, make other clarifying changes to ensure that LEHDs appropriately enforce operational and structural requirements. 2)BACKGROUND . AB 300 (Ma), Chapter 638, Statutes of 2011, creates the Safe Body Art Act (Act) to set up a uniform regulatory and oversight structure for the performance of tattooing, branding, body piercing, and permanent makeup in California. The Act requires all body art practitioners to annually register with their LEHD, obtain annual blood-borne pathogen training, provide documentation of Hepatitis B vaccination status, and obtain specific health information and informed consent from customers. The Act also requires the owner of a body art facility to obtain a permit from the LEHD, operate the facility in a safe and clean manner, maintain written procedures for the operation of the facility, and maintain records of training and equipment sterilization. The Act also regulates the performance of body art at body art events in temporary demonstration booths and in vehicles. Inspectors from LEHDs conduct annual inspections of body art facilities to determine compliance with the Act and have the authority to suspend or revoke permits and registrations under specified conditions. 3)SUPPORT . The sponsor writes in support that the changes in this bill are needed to reduce inconsistency and confusion with regard to implementing the Act. The sponsor adds that the provisions of this bill reflect consensus from a large stakeholder group comprised of environmental health regulators, tattooists, body piercers, permanent cosmetic practitioners, the mechanical ear piercing industry and other health trainers and safe body art advocates. Studex AB 1168 Page 4 Corporation, a manufacturer of ear piercing equipment states in support that this bill brings much needed certainty, clarity, and statewide uniformity to the regulatory oversight of the ear piercing industry. 4)PRIOR LEGISLATION . a) AB 300 regulates the performance of body art in California. b) AB 223 (Ma) of 2010, and AB 517 (Ma) of 2009, both of which were substantively identical to AB 300, were vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger who stated in his veto messages that he did not see a compelling need for additional legislation, given that local jurisdictions have the option to establish these requirements in their own county and many have chosen to do so. REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION : Support California Association of Environmental Health Administrators (sponsor) Studex Corporation Opposition None on file. Analysis Prepared by : Cassie Royce / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097