BILL ANALYSIS
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|Hearing Date:April 20, 2009 | Bill No: SB |
| |549 |
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SENATE COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT
Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod, Chair
Bill No: SB 549Author:Correa
As Amended:April 16, 2009 Fiscal: Yes
SUBJECT: Barbering and cosmetology: manicurists.
SUMMARY: Authorizes the Board of Barbering and Cosmetology to
collect gender, language and ethnicity data from new licensure
applicants and renewal licensees and requires that the
information be available to the public upon request.
Existing law:
1)Creates the Board of Barbering and Cosmetology (BBC) within
the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) for the licensing and
regulation of cosmetologists, barbers, estheticians,
manicurists, electrologists, instructors and establishments
where barbering and cosmetology are practiced.
2)Specifies that the practice of cosmetology includes, among
other things, the removal of superfluous body hair from a
person by the use of depilatories or by the use of tweezers,
chemicals, and preparations or by the use of devices or
appliances of any kind or description, except by the use of
light waves, commonly known as rays.
3)Requires the BBC to conduct and administer examinations for
licensure applicants, issue licenses to qualified applicants,
discipline individuals who have violated the statutes or
regulations governing the conditions of their licenses, and
adopt rules governing sanitary conditions and precautions to
protect the public health and safety in licensed
establishments, approved schools, and in the practice of
barbering and cosmetology.
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This bill:
1)States legislative intent to collect information on gender,
language preference and ethnicity of the Board of Barbering
and Cosmetology's licensees and collecting the demographic
data will help ensure that appropriate health and safety
information is effectively provided to licensees.
2)Requires applicants for BBC licensure to report to the Board,
on their initial application for licensure or renewal,
information regarding their gender, language preference and
ethnicity.
3)Requires the Board to collect the gender, language preference
and ethnicity information from manicurist license applicants,
current manicurist licensees, establishment license
applicants, and current establishment licensees, and to
compile this information and make it available to the public
upon request.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown. This bill is keyed "fiscal" by
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose. According to the Sponsors, the Asian Americans for
Civil Rights and Equality (AACRE) and the California Healthy
Nail Salon Collaborative , current gender, language and
ethnicity data for beauty industry employees is insufficient
to protect them from the wide array of occupational hazards
they face in the course of their work. Estimates on the
number of licensed Vietnamese nail technicians range from
40-80%, many of whom are limited English-proficient. The
Sponsors state that most nail salon owners and workers often
cite language as the most common barrier they face in
accessing workplace health and safety information, and the
lack of access to health and safety information in a language
workers and owners can understand exacerbates occupational
health hazards.
As the BBC is not currently required to collect demographic
information on its licensees, language preferences are not
known for beauty industry employees. As a result, information
may not be communicated in a language workers understand. The
Sponsors state they believe the collection of the language and
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ethnicity data will enable BBC to effectively communicate with
the limited English proficient licensee population and allow
the BBC to identify language needs, conduct culturally
competent outreach and develop effective policy that will
better serve the community.
The Sponsor asserts that knowing the gender and ethnicity of
BBC licensees is critical to understanding occupational health
hazards as disease risk often varies across gender and ethnic
groups and such information is necessary to understanding
whether workplace exposure is linked to any disease. They
believe this measure provides the demographic information
required to inform intervention efforts to promote worker
health and safety.
2.Background. In 1927, the Board of Barber Examiners and the
Board of Cosmetology were established to regulate the
barbering profession and cosmetology profession, respectively.
Over the years, there have been many changes to the laws of
each profession and their respective governing boards. For
example, laws were enacted to require separate licenses for
manicurists, electrologists and estheticians, and the
regulatory boards have evolved to become the Board of
Barbering and Cosmetolgy.
The BBC currently has approximately 438,000 licensees in seven
different licensing categories: cosmetologists, barbers,
manicurists (nail care), estheticians (skin care),
electrologists (permanent hair removal), apprentices and
establishments in which the practice of barbering and
cosmetology occurs.
3.Senate Office of Research (SOR) Policy Brief. In December,
the SOR issued a policy brief entitled, "Pedicures at What
Price?" which examined health and safety issues facing the
nail salon workforce. This paper found that the number of
state licensed manicurists has doubled in the last 20 years
and has become more diverse. In 1987, only 10 percent of
California's nail technicians were Vietnamese and in 2002, the
59 percent of the manicurists were Vietnamese. The brief
states nail salons contribute significantly to the Vietnamese
community's economic base because this industry provides
immigrants easy access to the workforce.
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The policy brief also states nail technicians are exposed to
numerous toxic chemicals during the course of their work such
as solvents, foot spa disinfectants and acrylic nail products.
In particular, the following three chemicals are found in
nail products that cause the greatest health concerns:
Dibutyl phthalate (DBP): a chemical that makes
plastic more durable.
Formaldehyde: used as a preservative and nail
hardener
Toluene: a solvent
The United States Environmental Protection Agency's Office of
Pollution Prevention and Toxics states those three chemicals
are linked to cancer as well as adverse reproductive results.
The chemicals are also listed on California's Proposition 65
list of chemicals known to cause cancer and reproductive
toxicity. Proposition 65 was passed in 1987, and requires the
state to publish and annually update a list of naturally
occurring and synthetic chemicals known to cause cancer, birth
defects and other reproductive harm. It also requires
businesses to notify Californians when they knowingly expose
individuals to a listed chemical.
The SOR brief also raised concerns regarding the use of proper
ventilation and air quality in nail salons as chemical fumes
and vapors from nail care products can cause headaches, an
inability to concentrate, dizziness, nausea, eye and throat
irritation and fatigue if ventilation is inadequate. National
worksite inspections found that those vapors are well below
the regulatory limits for occupational exposure, but that
properly designed ventilation systems would minimize the
inhalation of fumes and could prevent health problems
associated with exposure to nail products.
The policy paper also makes a number of recommendations to
help mitigate nail salon workers' exposure to hazardous
chemicals. Specifically, it suggests improving air quality
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within nail salons, increasing outreach and technical
assistance to the cosmetology industry and improving
communication to workers by providing translated information
about workforce and product in safety in languages they
understand.
1.Related legislation. SB 43 (Alquist), among other things,
permits California's healing arts boards to collect
information regarding the cultural and linguistic competency
of persons licensed, certified, registered, or otherwise
subject to regulation by the boards. This measure is
scheduled to be heard in this Committee on Monday, April 20th.
SB 620 (Wiggins) requires a licensed osteopathic physician and
surgeon (D.O.) to report to the Osteopathic Medical Board of
California (OMBC) at the time of license renewal, any
specialty board certification and their practice status,
allows a D.O. to report, and the OMBC to collect, information
regarding his or her cultural background, and foreign language
proficiency and specifies that the collected information may
be placed on the OMBC's Internet website. The bill was
approved in this Committee on a 8-1 vote on April 13th, and
now moves to the Committee on Appropriations for
consideration.
AB 269 (Eng, Chapter 262, Statues of 2007) created new
reporting requirements for dentists and dental auxiliaries
upon their application for initial licensure and renewal,
including reporting their completion of any advanced
educational program and their current employment status. The
measure also requires the Dental Board of California and the
Committee on Dental Auxiliaries (COMDA) to collect and
aggregate information received from dentists and dental
auxiliaries pursuant to this bill relating to cultural
background and foreign language proficiency.
AB 2283 (Oropeza, Chapter 612, Statutes of 2006) requires the
Medical Board of California (MBC) to annually aggregate
existing data reported by physicians on their cultural
background and foreign language proficiency, by the zip code
of the primary practice location and on a statewide basis, and
report the information on MBC's website.
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SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION:
Support:
Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality (Co-Sponsor)
California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative (Co-Sponsor)
Opposition:
None on file as of April .
Consultant: Sieglinde Johnson