New Health Reg. Hits Body Work Businesses

In the wake the discovery of prostitution at a downtown “massage” business in recent years, and inspectors discovering, more recently, that at some “body work” businesses, workers, potentially victims of traficking or exploitation, actually lived on premises, the Board of Health vowed to do something.

Health Director Cathleen Liberty, MPH  sought and found model regulations in other towns that had faced similar challenges, and used that inspiration to craft draft legislation, which was the subject of review and approval at Wednesday’s Board of Health meeting.

No one from the public came to the hearing, and there were no real concerns expressed from the board, so the draft measure was approved unanimously, with an effective date 30 days hence.

The multi-page regulation stated as its purpose the projection of the health and safety of the community, including the patrons, employees, and owners of commercial businesses offering legitimate services such as Bodywork Therapy, Reflexology, Spa Services, and others.

“The scope of this regulation is broad and includes provisions designed to ensure legitimate operations and to guard against the risk of prostitution, human trafficking and disease transmission. It is the Board of Health’s intent that only an individual who meets and maintains a minimum standard of competence and conduct within their scope of professional practice may provide services to the public. This regulation designates the requirements for obtaining a permit to operate a bodywork establishment and permit to practice bodywork, as well as grounds for suspension, revocation or denial of such a permit.”

In the definitions section, the measure defines Bodywork to be “practices including, but not limited to: Accupressure, Asian Bodywork, AMMA Therapy®, Body-Mind Centering, Chi Nei Tsang, Feldenkrais Method, Five Element Shiatsu, Integrative Eclectic Shiatsu, Japanese Shiatsu, Jin Shin Do®, Korean Bodywork, Bodymind AcupressureTM, Polarity, Macrobiotic Shiatsu, Reflexology, Reiki, Rolph Structural Integration, Shiatsu Amma Therapy, Traditional Thai Massage & Bodywork, Trager Approach, Tui na, Qi Gong, Zen Shiatsu, Ayurvedic medicine and other practices as they become known.”

Most crucially, in addition to setting out a wide range of regulatory and inspectional requirements, the regulation states that “At no time shall a practitioner of bodywork therapy conduct any business, or list as a business, his/her home address. Additionally, at no time may clients be seen at the practitioner’s residence ...[and] At no time shall a practitioner of bodywork therapy run a business from a residence, condominium, hotel, motel, mobile home, or other residential setting.”

This last requirement seems likely to force the shutdown of some local therapeutic practices that have been based from homes of individual residences for many years, in some cases for decades.

One home-based practitioner, who asked to remained anonymous, reached by telephone shortly after the Wednesday vote, expressed shock and dismay, and was clearly not aware of the pending legislation or its potential impact. “I don’t know what I will do, this is my career,” the practitioner stated.

How rigorously the measure will be enforced, depends, in part, on the availability of inspectors, something often a weak spot for a department that has its hands full already with many other kinds of inspections and public health concerns.

During the meeting, Liberty stressed that the measure was discussed with the Franklin Police Department, and they are very supportive, she said.