Alberta, Canada Painters Beware

Wow! With all that where do you fit the paint!

Sooooo there is two of us painting, hence the supplies in the middle. There is a bottle of sanitizer at each end. The two white, tall containers at the back are for clean and then dirty sponges (garbage.) The blue tipped bottle at the far end is the alcohol spray. There is my bleach solution in the large blue cup and clean water in the smaller white cups behind.

So it starts like this;
hand sanitizer, brush to paint, brush to skin, brush to blue cup, brush to white cup, brush wiped then sprayed with alcohol, brush to stand, then new brush.

Overwhelming at first, but you get used to it. I'm pretty sure that I will never get below the 4 minute mark per face, due to the cleaning steps. My average is between 4-6 min now.

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The mesh hanging bag holds clean sponges. The jug at our feet contains our bleach solution. Our wash table is behind the fellow with the wig sitting in the chair. You can see the containers for sponges on the table better.

I'll have to be adding a few things to my table now that the inspectors are on the prowl. I follow my local regs, but now that Calgary's have been adopted province-wide I will have to add the handwash station.

Criss... my regs said the bleach solution OR the min 70% isopropyl, not both. Do they really want BOTH???

They checked for both each time???? It sucks, cuz it's so much crap, but...........

Strange. The old regs listed the alcohol, the bleach solution, an ammonia solution and antiseptics... and it was one of the above only, not multiples.

I think I'll contact the local Health Inspectors about it... [sigh]...

Do and please lemme know. I will find out more bout that document tomorrow as well and let you know.

Thanks... would be helpful if they would update that document ... the PDF for the Calgary regs. I still have the old Peace Country Health regs up here...

Thanks for your work, I hope it's just bleach or alcohol not both.

Another face painter got approached by a health inspector this past Saturday in Lethbridge. She didn't know about the regulations but she got informed! When she contacted the authorities, she had a heck of a time finding anyone that knew anything about these regulations for face painting! No fine for her.... lucky this time.

I guess my days of being able to carry everything from my car in one trip is over.... unless I take a pack horse in my horsetrailer!! lol

Hasn't trickled this far north yet thankfully... but I will be prepared!!

Once I get ahold of an inspector I will post!

Judy wrote:I guess my days of being able to carry everything from my car in one trip is over.... unless I take a pack horse in my horsetrailer!! lol

I'm sure there's a regulation about this

Psalmbook wrote:

Judy wrote:I guess my days of being able to carry everything from my car in one trip is over.... unless I take a pack horse in my horsetrailer!! lol

I'm sure there's a regulation about this

HAHAHA

I got my official typed up documentation yesterday from the first inspector. I'm going to try and figure out how to scan and post it so everyone can see.

I also have an email into the local health inspector here in gp - and i will let you know when i find out

Dawny

local health inspector just callled , she was very helpful and said that here in GP if you are using bleach solution or 70 % alcohol it is fine. She said using both, in her opinion is just doing the same thing twice. soooo , good news for GP painters Shannon ! lol

Dawn

Wow.....is our society germ paranoid or what?!
So basically, we're supposed to wash our brushes with soap, rinse with water about thrice, spray with alcohol and/or rinse with bleach, rinse with more water....in between every kid....even when the brush went nowhere near the mouth or nose region? ....Only to watch little face painted Suzie run over to play with her best friend's grubby toys that probably 10 other kids have touched and then put her fingers in her mouth? LOL
Seriously this is ridiculous. I get the whole sanitization thing, sure, I do it when I get home or in between parties. But this is the kind of thing that surgeons do to their tools....Next thing you know we'll all be carrying around portable autoclaves! And our children will all be wrapped up in plastic bubbles! AHHHH!

I hope this doesn't hit BC anytime soon.

Hi Dana,

it does seem like a lot to do in between each client, but it is actually not that bad. you get used to it! most of the parents are actually really happy to see such precautions taken.

I do see what you mean though, about the safety precautions being taken and then the child goes over and does something like drop his sucker and pick it up off the market floor and pop it back in his mouth ! blah ! (true story ) very yucky to watch ! LOL

Hopefully you won't have to worry about it in BC

Take care

Dawny

Hi all,
Talked to a health inspector this morning... Andrea 403-388-6690 ext. 3. I guess different inspectors are telling FP different things. She was not aware of required size of containers, just that they had to have enough water for their event, and a catch basin large enough so it doesn't overflow. She will bring it up at a staff meeting so everyone is on the same page.
I also asked her about a first aid kit, and she said it was a good idea but not necessary and they don't even check for this at restaurants.
She said she's not worried about wiping chairs down between kids as there are no bodily fluids.
She said when buying lysol or that kind of wipe (to wipe down equipment) to check if the active ingredient ends in ammonium. If it does, that's the quaternary ammonium that is required. She said if you want to check the strength, you could bring it in to their office and they will check it for you.
She has never asked anyone to provide the test strips (litmus paper strips) on site.
She said the big emphasis is the handwashing station in between kids and proper sanitizing of equipment.
I asked about double dipping into the paint and she was going to ask about this as well. I told her that you can't always get enough paint on a brush to cover what you need to. I asked if wiping faces with a babywipe initially would solve that problem. Again, she wasn't sure. She also wasn't sure if you sprayed alcohol on the paint if it would react with the paint or how long the alcohol would take to evaporate.
I asked why it seemed that inspectors seemed to all of a sudden be checking out the face painters and she said it started out as focussing on the food venues, but then they realized there were lots of other things going on at fairs, petting zoos with no handwashing stations, bouncy houses and face painting etc. Some nasty things were happening.
I asked about health regulations for bouncy houses out of curiousity and she said there were none.

She said we're all on the same boat and the health inspectors aren't out to get the facepainters who do this as an occupation but to stop the people who just do it once in awhile from not following any kind of health procedures like using the same sponge multiple times on multiple people.

She was very pleasant on the phone and tried to be as helpful as possible as the inspectors are trying to be proactive rather than reactive.

Psalmbook wrote:

Judy wrote:I guess my days of being able to carry everything from my car in one trip is over.... unless I take a pack horse in my horsetrailer!! lol

I'm sure there's a regulation about this

Yeah, but I'm covered! I'm going to add my horses as the petting zoo.... just another service I offer.... hey... I already have the hand washing station so why not!

Thanks for sharing your information Judy ! It's nice to compare notes. My health inspector basically said the same thing, and i can see why they are concerned , i saw some "scary" practices while i was on vacation in Edmonton ..... anyway!
BTW your horse on your avatar is lovely ! if you ever find yourself in the Grande Prairie , or peace region we should get together and Jam !

Best wishes and happy painting everyone

Dawny

Judy, I'm glad you talked to her. Andrea was the one who came the first time around for me. She asked specifically to see my 1st aid kit and made a note on my document that it was on site, listed with the other requirements.....weird.

I think it's all new to them as well, (the health inspectors that is) and the holes in their theories are becoming more and more obvious as to what is doable and what is necessary. Hopefully it will get straightened out soon.

Shoot, If I lived up there I might have to buy a mini trailer that has a sink and cabinets like a mobile face painter to go....geesh!

Judy wrote:

Psalmbook wrote:

Judy wrote:I guess my days of being able to carry everything from my car in one trip is over.... unless I take a pack horse in my horsetrailer!! lol

I'm sure there's a regulation about this

Yeah, but I'm covered! I'm going to add my horses as the petting zoo.... just another service I offer.... hey... I already have the hand washing station so why not!

If you bring a blow up swimming pool, could that count as a bouncy house?