Spa and Hotel news from SpaCast.com. Part of Spa Index Media Network.

More on those Fish Pedicures, this time from New York

Using live fish to eat away dead skin in pedicures would be banned in New York State for health and humane reasons under a proposed bill.  ... Fish pedicures are illegal in at least 14 states, according to state Senator Jeff Klein of the Bronx and Westchester, who proposed the bill. The bans cite the concern that health conditions led by fungal infections may be transmitted by unsanitized fish in dirty water. Animal-rights groups are pushing for outlawing the procedure because it is inhumane to the fish.

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Canada spas still want that fish pedicure!

The Pillar and Post's 100 Fountain Spa wants to bring the fish pedicures to Niagara-on-the- Lake and has gone so far as to buy a tank and a stock of more than 50 Garra rufa fish.  "It's something that Niagara needs, Canada needs. Anything that is new is good for tourism."

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http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2657591

SpaCast: Ilinois Atty General sues Chicago Medi-Spa for Deceptive Marketing

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Chicago-area medical spas, Nu U Med Spas, for performing unapproved procedures without a physician's supervision and luring patients through deceptive marketing.  Madigan's complaint claims that Nu U Med Spas try to lure customers into buying "Lipodissolve, which is an injected therapy used to dissolve fat cells."

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SpaCast: Oakworks launches "breast comfort system" on its Utopian Massage Tables

OAKWORKS®, Inc., the premier U.S. manufacturer of spa, massage, and medical equipment, today announced the launch of the Utopian Massage Table with patent pending ABC System, the revolutionary new Adjustable Breast Comfort System designed by Rebecca Savich, President of Contour Table Systems.

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#SpaCast: Arizona Board of Cosmetology sued over Fish Pedicure Squabble

A conservative watchdog group has filed a lawsuit against an Arizona agency on behalf of a salon owner who uses nibbling fish to remove dead skin from the feet of customers.  The lawsuit filed by Goldwater Institute on Monday says the Arizona Board of Cosmetology overstepped its bounds when it decided the fish perform pedicures and are subject to regulatory control.

Read the Story (11-30-09)

To have fish eat your feet or not, that is the question - and it is one that a court may have to answer.  A lawsuit has been filed by the Goldwater Institute public interest group against the Arizona Board of Cosmetology to decide whether the board can prohibit the use of small fish that eat flaky dead skin off feet as part of cosmetic treatment.

Read the Story (12-13-09)

#SpaCast: US medical spas facing state legislation

Medical spas in the US and elsewhere have increased in numbers and are popular as medical tourism destinations. Several countries have reported problems of medical spas undertaking medical procedures which neither the spa nor the staff are qualified to do. Unfortunately, this reflects badly on the majority who are professional. They have tended to fall between the gaps in legislation, but one of the first countries seeking to remedy that is the USA. Nationally, the number of medical spas around the country has grown from 500 in 2004 to 2,500 today. If this growth rate continues, more states will follow the four who are preparing regulations, and almost every sate has discussed the idea.

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Are medical spas a fast-growing but undefined industry?

...[A]s the medical spa industry continues to expand at a breakneck pace, oversight of these facilities is lagging behind. New cosmetic procedures and devices are increasingly blurring the line between the practice of medicine and the field of cosmetology — and putting some patients in the hands of less-qualified individuals.

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RockResorts Innovative Program to Recycle Hotel Soap

High in the Colorado Rockies a life-saving necessity is making its way to the island nation of Haiti and abroad. By partnering with Clean the World, Inc., RockResorts is collecting barely-used soap and shampoo from its collection of 8 hotels and enabling the Orlando charity to provide the much-needed supplies to needy people in homeless shelters and impoverished countries around the world.

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Swine Flu Vaccine Arrives At Palm Springs area Day Spa

This seems to be the hottest property in Riverside County. H1N1 spray mist vaccines. There's a refrigerator filled with 100 of them. Up to 1,000 are on the way. We did not find them at a county medical clinic. They're all out. We found it at the Eterna Day Spa and Laser Center in Indian Wells.

How did they get this supply that county public health officials can't seem to get? Simple. Dr. Weisman's medical spa just asked.

"He actually was the first in the nation to receive it because he just had the foresight for that, far along, that many months ago that we would be needing this for the community," says Eterna Medical Day Spa's Lucy Schwartzer, RN.

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Surgery at a Spa? Buyer Beware

There is little to suggest that the TriBeCa MedSpa in Manhattan is a medical facility, at least in the traditional sense. In the waiting area, called the Tranquillity Room, a waterfall cascades down one wall. A client may have a pedicure or facial before entering a softly lighted space where a plastic surgeon performs laser Fraxel treatment or some other minimally invasive procedure that would cost twice as much in a harried doctor’s office.

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