Gilbert spa owner challenges order stopping fish pedicures

Gilbert spa owner challenges order stopping fish pedicures

By JACQUES BILLEAUD

Source: eastvalleytribune

1/14/2013

A civil trial began Monday in a case by an Arizona salon owner who is challenging an order from cosmetology regulators that forced her to stop offering pedicures that use fish to nibble the dead skin off people's feet.

Cindy Vong opened a fish spa within her nail salon in the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert during October 2008 but was forced to close that fish spa segment of her business nearly a year later. The closure was prompted by the state's Board of Cosmetology, which said the practice was illegal because the fish were a tool for skin exfoliation that couldn't be sanitized in between uses.

Vong said the practice poses no health risks, prompted no complaints from clients and that the treatments, which cost $30 for 20 minutes, were popular and profitable. "There is not a single instance of harm attributable to fish spas in the entire world," said Clint Bolick, a lawyer for the libertarian-leaning Goldwater Institute, who is pressing Vong's case in court.

Fish pedicures are popular in Asia and spread to some U.S. cities in recent years. But Texas, Washington, Massachusetts and New Hampshire have outlawed the practice because of health concerns.

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