Sauna parlour sanitation worries health inspectors

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34106, 19 March 1976, Page 2

Sauna parlour sanitation worries health inspectors

/N.Z. Press Association)

HAMILTON, March 18. Regulations may be sought by the Institute of New Zealand Health Inspectors to tighten up control of the sanitary conditions at sauna and tattoo parlours.

The Canterbury branch of the institute is to investigate sanitation at the parlours and will report to the institute on the need for legislation to provide control over them.

At present, there are no regulatory controls governing the operation of these premises.

“We don’t want to appear to be oppressive to the establishment of these premises, but we want to ensure the public gets a fair deal as far as the protection of their health is concerned,” said the institute’s president (Mr Colin Dale, of Auckland) in Hamilton today.

The institute council decided some action should be

taken in the matter at a meeting in Hamilton earlier this week, and this was ratified at the institute’s annual meeting during the Royal Society of Health conference, also in Hamilton yesterday.

Mr Dale said the Canterbury branch would be producing its report in about three months and a decision on any recommendations for the introduction of legislation to the Minister of Health (Mr Gill) would be mad; then. Tattoo parlours were an area of concern to the inspectors because of cases of indiscriminate use of needles, he said.

“There is the possibility of passing infections from one person to another. The need for regulations on their operations is something we will also have to assess,”

The inspectors’ concern about sauna parlours—a business that has boomed in recent years — had first come about when they were approached regarding the installation of plumbing for sauna pools. Mr Dale said.

“It was then we realised we have not got any standards to work to regarding the

treatment of the water, the state of changing rooms, and other areas of sanitation.” Mr Dale said he had not heard of any complaints about sanitation at the parlours—“but wherever there is this type of activity there is always the risk of infections being passed on. "There is always the possibility the standards do not match up to what the public should be entitled to.”

Although there were no standards governing pools, there was a code of practice issued by the Standards Association for their operation which schools and municipalities running pools were expected to adhere to.

Mr Dale said the need for legislation on sauna parlours would depend on what facilities were being introduced and what standards the managements were providing themselves for the public’s protection.

“But we want to get the facts first. We are not medical people and this may be a storm in a teacup.” The Health Department had been looking closely at the desirability of legislation

to cover tattoo parlours, the acting director of the department’s division of public health (Dr C. M. Collins) said yesterday. Dr Collins, who is in Hamilton to attend the health conference, said: “We realise the main problem is not the official tattooist but the unofficial tattooist, and we have asked our district office staff to look at known tattoo places and ensure their facilities and sterilisation procedures are as adequate as we would like.”

This had followed an outbreak of serum hepatitis traced to a Christchurch tattoo parlour. Another area of concern to the department was the tattooing of minors. Similar regulations to those in England — where the age limit was 16 — were being considered for New Zealand.

Dr Collins said the department had not looked closely at sauna parlour sanitation, but would seriously consider any representations from the institute. Dr Collins said he was unaware of any official complaints about sauna parlours.