An Ottawa Public Health report that proposes to post the results of health inspections of businesses such as tattoo parlours online is the first step toward ensuring the public is aware of potential lapses in hygiene.This will force shoddy establishments to shape up.
While the effort to inspect all these businesses is significant, a one-time inspection will have an immediate impact: they must keep up standards in order to cater to the niche market necessary for their survival.
Already, results from inspections of restaurants are available online. However, the inspection reports for other establishments are not yet made public. This includes so-called “high-risk establishments,” such as tattoo parlours and other businesses that break the skin.
Posting inspection results has a two-fold purpose: the first is to inform the public. The second is to shame businesses into shaping up their hygiene procedures.
In short, while inspection results may be the spur, it is really market forces that provide the impetus for businesses to keep clean.
When it comes to a niche market – and indeed, a high-risk service, such as body piercing – this market force is compounded, because allegations of unclean procedures could be a death warrant for a business that provides services with significant risks of illness and infection.
Unlike restaurants, which have a large body of potential customers to draw from, high-risk businesses cater to a relatively smaller market, amplifying the impact of negative health reviews. Indeed, as Ottawa Public Health is concerned about relatively rare procedures such as tongue splitting, it seems entirely likely that a round of posted inspections would have an immediate impact.
The report suggests that more than a quarter of these businesses needed re-inspection in 2012 to ensure that “deficiencies in infection control practices had been addressed.”
This is cause for concern. Clearly, the market forces to encourage hygiene have not been powerful enough.
However, Ottawa Public Health, which plans to inspect all high-risk establishments by the end of 2013, has an opportunity to change this and encourage significant reform.
While it will require an investment of time and energy to inspect all of these businesses, the publication of the results will kick the market into gear. This harnesses both the purpose of informing the public – and publicly shaming unhygienic businesses.
When people interested in body modification are able to find out which businesses are the safest, they’re likely to go there. For people interested in extreme body modification, these are not exactly snap decisions. Before getting a massive and expensive tattoo, for example, a great deal of research goes into studios and artists. Reports posted online by Ottawa Public Health will be just one more resource for those interested in body modification.
For the businesses that aren’t up to standard, they’ll be forced to reform – or run out of customers.