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29 March 2024

Abu Dhabi plans special treatment for salons

Published
By WAM

The Public Health Division, Municipality of Abu Dhabi City, has recently held a coordinative meeting with representatives of the Health Authority Abu Dhabi, Ministry of Health, and Public Prosecution to explore standardising the mechanism enforced on the practices and activities of salons and beauty centres.

The meeting also mooted developing programmes for sharing information between entities concerned with the activities of salons under the context of the Municipality’s vision aimed at providing superior quality of life and sustainable environment to the residents of Abu Dhabi City.

The meeting was headed by Mohammed Saeed Al Rumaithi, Head of Health Control Section, Municipality of Abu Dhabi City, in the presence of Salim Al Yahyaa’ee, representative of the Public Prosecution; in addition to Dr. Ehab Abu Aydah, Dr. Mohammed Hani Jinaina, and Mutaaz Zakkar from the Ministry of Health; Dr. Nadiya Ateeq Murad, and Dr. Sahar Abdul Sattar from the Health Authority Abu Dhabi; Abdulla Al Suwaidi, Latifa Al Rumaithi, Amal Al Hashimi, and Nawal Al Hamadi from the Municipality of Abu Dhabi City.

The meeting stressed the importance of redressing the status of salons infringing the realms of their business, clarified the definition of concept of the salon as a beautification outlet, and highlighted the need of curbing offences in collaboration and coordination with the concerned bodies; namely the Ministry of Health, Health Authority – Abu Dhabi, and the Municipality of Abu Dhabi City. It also underscored the importance of leveraging the role of the Ministry of Health and the Health Authority in framing up controls pertinent to the use of equipment, and classifying them as equipment that has to be operated after securing technical permit or medical permit.

The meeting underlined the importance of enacting stringent statutory and monitoring legislations governing supplementary medical products and accessories, setting up controls governing the import and entry of various types of medical and laser equipment, developing medical classification of the quality of equipment used in salons and beauty centres, and ordering importers to seek classification of such equipment from the official entities before marketing them.

The meeting emphasised the need to order beauty parlours and salons to have a technical specialist approved from the Ministry or the Health Authority for using the medical and laser equipment, and the need of monitoring and obtaining permits for performing certain practices which have common medication-and-beautification dimensions with a view to separating them, such as tanning and peeling.

The meeting called for coordinating efforts between the Municipality and the Health Authority in holding an awareness workshop for inspectors of the Public Health Division under the theme "Infection Control", and coordinating with inspectors of the Health Authority in carrying out inspection visits by the Public Health Division. It called for placing posters on beauty salons containing expressions such as "Using medical equipment in salons is an offence punishable by law", and referring all pending issues to the Ministry of Health for response and producing reports; where a suitable wording has been agreed such that penalties can be assessed accordingly.

The meeting recommended establishing an electronic link between the Ministry of Health, and the Health Authority – Abu Dhabi in classifying equipment, and stressed the need of endorsing firms by the Public Health Division to offer training on the use of such equipment due to the apparent lack of any entity that has the competence of licensing technicians to operate such equipment.