Comparison of Guidelines and Regulatory Frameworks for Personal Services Establishments

Personal services establishments (PSEs) have been identified as a priority area by public health inspectors (PHIs) and provincial ministry staff in several provinces, as well as by people within the industry. There are a lot of gaps and conflicting information regarding public health issues associated with PSEs. Guidelines and regulations are often vague or impractical. In general, there is a lack of training and licensing of both practitioners and business owners within the personal services industry. The level of public health guidance for PSEs varies across jurisdictions within Canada and other countries. While guidelines for more common procedures such as aesthetics, tattooing, and body piercing vary in comprehensiveness, there is a general lack of guidance relating to more extreme forms of body modification. Because the personal services industry is constantly changing, it may be prudent to develop risk assessment procedures for infection prevention and control (IPAC) in these settings, as well as tools to assess risk from failure of IPAC procedures in any personal services setting. As invasive body modification grows in popularity and range of procedures, there is an increasing need to clarify when a procedure falls under the auspices of invasive surgery and whether it should be regulated as such.

What follows is a summary of the regulatory frameworks, as well as highlights and gaps from existing guidelines/regulations, from select jurisdictions within and outside Canada. It is important to note that this is not an exhaustive summary of the guidelines; it highlights some key areas that may be particularly relevant, problematic, or those that vary most between jurisdictions.