THUNDER BAY — When you go to your local barbershop or beauty salon, you should be able to see a green or yellow card near the entrance bearing a letter grade of A,B,C or D.
Most personal service settings in the district have now been visited by a public health inspector and left with a grade based on their compliance with provincial requirements for infection prevention and control.
This is part of the Thunder Bay District Health Unit's BodyWise program, initially launched in January 2020 but disbanded when the COVID pandemic was declared a short time later.
BodyWise was restarted earlier this year, and is similar to the DineWise food safety program that's been grading restaurants since 2017.
Clients with questions about the grade a barbershop or beauty salon has received can contact TBDHU to learn what kinds of infractions would merit a specific grade, but anyone wanting to see an individual inspection report would have to file a Freedom of Information request.
Grading is also being done at various other businesses not under the supervision of a regulated health professional, including tattoo parlours, body-piercing and nail services, and any other setting where there's a risk of exposure to blood or bodily fluids.
"One of the most critical compliance items that we look for is definitely proper cleaning followed by disinfection of the instruments that are going to be used from person to person," said Jocelyn Pearson, a public health inspector with TBDHU.
"So if there's anything in there that is an instrument, like the clippers or the combs, the brushes, any of those items that they would use from one person to the next, they have to be properly cleaned and then disinfected according to their classification...We don't want to see any of the single-use disposable instruments or items being reused."
Letter grades are based on a point system, with A representing 90 to 100 points and B representing 75 to 89 points, and points are deducted according to the seriousness of any infractions.
Failure to achieve compliance in a critical area such as sterilization would cause an automatic 15-point deduction, while there would be a 10-point deduction for not having all the appropriate supplies at a designated hand-washing sink.
Pearson said TBDHU provided operators with an education package and orientation prior to relaunching BodyWise, and did compliance inspections to remind them "OK, if we were grading, this, this and this would be outstanding."
Under provincial guidelines, routine inspections are only permitted once a year, but businesses that don't get an A grade can be reinspected multiple times and get the opportunity to improve their score.
Operators who couldn't achieve at least a D grade would likely receive a closure order.
Pearson emphasized that the program is not only aimed at keeping the public safe from infection, but is also intended to protect staff who work closely with customers.
"For example, if they're not properly cleaning and disinfecting those instruments that are going from person to person, they're handling those instruments and are putting themselves at risk, right? So it's a program that's just out there to keep everyone safe, not just the clients."
