June 30, 2005

Straight-up facts

Hollywood celebrity, Almaden teen testify before Legislature

Both urge stiffer safety standards, stronger fines for nail salons

By Kymberli W. Brady
Staff Writer

The last time “American Idol” host Paula Abdul stepped into a Southern California salon for a manicure, she got far more than she bargained for.

“You can’t laugh at this,” exclaimed “American Idol” host Paula Abdul as she pointed to Almaden teen Brittany Welby’s legs during a press conference in Sacramento on Monday. “This bill would have saved her.”

So did Almaden’s Brittany Welby, 19, when she and some friends stopped by Silver Nails on Blossom Hill Road in October for impromptu pedicures.

On Monday, a bizarre and painful series of events brought both the celebrity and the teenage fan together to rally for a bigger cause, as they gave members of the California State Legislature an up-close-and-personal look at two reasons why legislation is needed to get nail salons to clean up their acts.

In Santa Clara County, there are at least 120 more.

Their testimony supported Assemblymember and Speaker Pro Tempore Leland Yee’s bill AB 1263, legislation that would establish minimum safety standards for pedicure and manicure chemicals and related equipment, ensure that salons have procedures in place for the proper, safe and sanitary operation of spa equipment and tools, and call for the State Board of Barbering and Cosmetology to prominently post notices warning consumers if a particular business has received a violation.

The bill overwhelmingly passed the Assembly on June 2. Monday’s favorable ruling followed approximately 15 minutes of testimony from Abdul and Welby in front of a standing-room only crowd. The only opposition came in the form of a no vote from Sen. Sam Aanestad, who argued that there was already too much regulation on businesses.

AB 1263 now heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee in the next two weeks. If approved, it is expected to go before a full vote of the Senate in August or September.

The outbreak, originally reported by the Almaden Times (Nov. 25 issue) came on the heels of a Watsonville outbreak, where 103 victims reported painful boils and lesions that required several months of painful treatments and antibiotics with unpleasant side affects and for some, scarring on their legs that will serve as a permanent reminder of improper sanitizing and disinfecting procedures.

While public chiding has taunted Abdul and humiliating scars have kept Welby in relative seclusion, both are now trying to reclaim their lives by going public with their stories. Abdul’s 13-month ordeal has been fraught with high fever and emergency surgeries in an attempt to battle a flesh-eating fungus under her right thumb nail that evolved into a full-blown staph infection.

“This horrific and debilitating condition was left under my thumb nail as a direct result of the salon using non-sanitized instruments,” Abdul said during her Senate testimony on Monday. “This type of infection has caused not only me, but thousands of women the expense of medical attention, loss of wages, loss of sleep, traumatic medical procedures, fear of returning to nail salons, and in my case and many others, emergency surgeries.

Assemblymember Leland Yee, right, watches an Amerispa Bio-Smart demonstration with Dr. Della Condon, president of the State Board of Cosmetology and Barbering, and Brittany Welby, one of the victims of the recent mycobacterium outbreak in San Jose.

“Then I was publicly humiliated. I was the butt of all jokes, from Leno to Letterman. People don’t understand just how serious this is.”

Abdul said hers, if left untreated could have lead to the loss of a limb or worse, death—all because the Studio City salon failed to comply with regulations.

“This is like taking a syringe used at a doctor’s office and then using it again on another patient,” she said. “These are integral parts of our everyday lives. It amazes me that we don’t have a single piece of legislation in place. We must take precautions.”

In Welby’s case, lesions started to appear on her legs a couple of weeks after her October pedicure. Initially, they resembled bug bites or ingrown hairs. When they continued to spread, she sought medical attention, but said her doctor failed to diagnose the infection and put her on the proper antibiotics until she showed him the photo in the Nov. 25 Almaden Times article.

“I thought that was a picture of my legs,” she said. “I immediately took it to my doctor and asked him to put me on the same medication. If this article hadn’t come out, it might have been months before I knew what I had.”

In her Senate testimony, Welby pleaded with the panel to give authorities the power they need to protect the public.

“That salon had been cited and fined twice for unsanitary conditions be-fore I went in,” she said. “This bill would have protected me and others from going through pain and humiliation. I may have these scars for the rest of my life.”

When asked by Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Sunol what an effective proactive approach might be, Abdul suggested implementing a grading system similar to the one used by the Health Department on restaurants in Los Angeles County—one that requires the grades to be posted in clear view at all times.

At a press conference following their testimony, one reporter, after hearing chuckling from men in the back of the room, questioned whether the matter was being taken seriously enough.

“You can’t laugh at this,” Abdul replied, as she lifted Welby’s skirt to expose her scars. “Two people here have gone to hell and back. I don’t take them seriously, but I’d love to see them walk a mile in my shoes. It’s critical that this happens—hell, this bill would have saved Brittany!”

“While it may not have happened to men, these are our moms, our sisters, our wives,” added Yee. “AB 1263 will significantly cut down on the number of infections, but more importantly, it will give consumers a reasonable sense of protection. It is imperative that we protect the health and safety of all nail salon consumers.”

A wake-up call
With similar outbreaks over the past few years in New York, Illinois, Virginia, Colorado, Ohio, Texas, Arizona, and more recently, Florida, many feel that national guidelines should be established to generate more conformity in an industry that has exploded in numbers and spiraled out of control.

In Santa Clara County, surprise inspections at 112 of the estimated 1,750 following the outbreak resulted in 709 violations and $70,775 in fines—more than half of which were for repeat violations. That kind of revenue could justify hiring a more realistic number of inspectors to adequately monitor the popular business.

“We’ve added 10 new inspectors,” said Dr. Della Condon, president of the State Board of Cosmetology and Barbering following a press conference with Welby, Yee, and representatives from Amerispa in San Francisco on June 24. “It will help, but it’s still not enough. We need more of our budget—we generate more than enough money to provide the level of inspectors that we need, but our money isn’t given to us. The legislature took $11 million of our budget money that we could have used to hire inspectors and do those kinds of things. We’re willing to share our part of the pain when California’s having a tough time, but we can’t cut back on the level of inspection that we really need to make sure is there.”

“American Idol” host Paula Abdul and Brittany Welby sat side by side in the capitol building, testifying on the need for tougher legislation to properly govern the salon industry. Seated next to them are Assemblymember and Speaker Pro Tempore Leland Yee, who sponsored AB 1263, legislation that would establish minimum safety standards for the nail salon industry.

Condon warned of hysteria and labeling the industry as a whole, where one bad apple shouldn’t spoil the entire bunch.

“If you ever think there’s ever a commitment on anyone’s part to deal with this problem, you’re looking at her right here,” she said. “But we need to be really careful not to paint all salons with the same brush. Ninety-eight percent are doing the right thing and are not part of the problem. They’re hard working women supporting their families. They’re clean and they’re careful. It’s those people who aren’t that we’re after.”

And it’s people, she said like Abdul and Welby who will be instrumental in doing just that.

“It took me eight months to get the courage to do this,” admitted Welby. “I never wanted to say anything or let anyone know I had this—not even my own mother. “Now, I just want to make sure that this is stopped before too many other people get it.”

Proactive measures already in place
Amerispa, a Rancho Cordova-based company that manufactures whirlpool pedicure equipment sponsored the bill. Following the Watsonville outbreak, Amerispa officials devoted much of its resources to research and development, which resulted in Bio-Smart™, the first automated cleaning and disinfecting system to meet or exceed all state requirements for sanitation and comply with EPA disinfection standards.

With nearly 20,000 spas in use worldwide, and average of 3,500 ordered each year, Amerispa president Mike Luong and Vice-president Jim Cassteel admit that the business is one they would like to protect and education, according to Luong should lead the way.

“We felt that not only had it been good to us, we needed to give something back,” he said. “If we don’t educate people on how to use correct chemicals, whether it’s ours or anyone else’s, this business is going to go away and we all loose.”

In March, Amerispa teamed up with Ameri-Kleen and District 7 City Council Candidate Linda Han Nguyen to offer free protection, safety and compliance courses for those in the cosmetology industry. They and provided translators for the large contingency of Vietnamese licensees.

“A lot of Vietnamese businesses are here,” Nguyen explained. “I realized that a lot of the people in this community are young salon owners. Now, we see lawsuits occurring and shops are closing—I wanted to help bring this seminar to the community and make it a free event, so that people could come and learn about the laws regarding health, safety, and disinfecting so they can go back and feel confident that they’re doing the right thing—because that’s their livelihood.”