Infection Prevention and Control in Personal Services Settings
Personal services settings provide non-medical procedures designed to enhance a person's appearance or sense of well-being. These services can include:
- Hair styling and barbering
- Facials and skin care services
- Make-up
- Eyelash/eyebrow tinting and eyelash extensions
- Nail services (manicures and pedicures)
- Tanning
- Hair removal (laser, electrolysis, sugaring, threading, waxing)
- Massages
- Piercings (body and ear)
- Micropigmentation
- Tattooing
Effective on July 1, 2018, the Ontario Regulation 136: Personal Service Settings came into effect. This brand new regulation sets out the requirements that owners and operators must comply with to offer safe services and reduce the risk of infection to the public and personal service workers.
Public Health Inspectors will continue to conduct regular inspections of personal service settings to monitor for infection prevention and control issues and compliance with Ontario Regulation 136/18. The new regulatory requirements align with the former Infection Prevention and Control Best Practices for Personal Service Settings (2009) guidelines from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, and therefore many of the requirements will be similar. A key difference between the guidelines and the regulation is that Public Health Inspectors are able to issue provincial offence tickets and impose fines if operators are not in compliance with the regulation.
Owners and operators have a legal responsibility to ensure that they and their employees understand and comply with the requirements under Ontario Regulation 136/18. Some of the requirements of the regulation include:
- Record keeping
- Cleaning and disinfecting or sterilizing of equipment
- At least one sink used only for hand washing
- If reusable equipment is used, at least one sink, that is not the hand wash sink
- Notification to the Health Unit at least 14 days before:
- Opening a personal service setting;
- Offering additional services at a personal service setting; or
- Starting construction or renovation of a personal service setting
Resources for Personal Service Setting operators:
Infection Prevention and Control Guidebook
Personal service workers can request their copy of this great resource from their Public Health Inspector or by contacting their local office of the Porcupine Health Unit.
Additional resources, including disinfectant tables and signage, can be found on Public Health Ontario’s website (available in English only).
Any questions or concerns from the public are welcome and can be directed to a Public Health Inspector at 705-267-1181 or 1-800-461-1818 and by email at inspections@porcupinehu.on.ca.