By Kim Siebert MacPhail
In September, the Board of Health will create a subcommittee to study Bedford’s policies on several bio-safety matters, including recombinant DNA, , body art, body work, and working with viruses.
The Board will be reviewing policies established by the City of Cambridge—another municipality with many science-based companies—and plans to adapt many of the same criteria for working with viruses to meet Bedford’s needs.
In addition, in the areas of body art (such as tattoos) and body work, Board of Health Director Heidi Porter explained that there is no immediate concern. But, she said, other towns are experiencing requests for permits for these establishments and by knowing that, Bedford can be proactive.
Concord’s Board of Health, for example, recently approved a tattoo business, the town’s first since tattooing became legal in Massachusetts in 2000. Body work, which Porter described it as “everything but massage therapy,” is also a fairly new category for state Boards of Health. Some examples of body work that are not considered “massage therapy” and that need specific policies are Thai massage, tuina, and reiki.
“The state’s Department of Public Health defines what is massage therapy and what it is not,” said Porter, “and it’s all these ‘nots’ that are ending up on Craig’s list with hourly rates. Are they legitimate establishments doing real body work? Should the Board of Health be regulating them to make sure they have sanitary conditions, that they have bathrooms, and that they are washing their hands?”
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