5.1 Implement, Station, and Linen Disinfection (WAC 308-20-110)

Implement, Station, and Linen Disinfection (WAC 308-20-110)

Washington does not leave sanitation to shop custom. WAC 308-20-110 is the minimum safety and sanitation standard for schools, manicurists, salons/shops, mobile units, and personal services. Every licensee must maintain it. School instructors and apprentice trainers must also make sure students and apprentices follow it. On a Washington manicurist exam item, "how we do it at my chain" is not an answer. The code is.

Chapter 4 taught the science of cleaning versus disinfection. This section is the Washington station book you follow at a Bellevue, Tacoma, Spokane, or Vancouver, WA nail table: sinks, soap, refuse-service rules, hand and skin cleansing, implement disinfection, clean versus used storage, daily disinfectant, gloves, and linens.

The dispensing sink is not a client sink

WAC 308-20-110(1)(a) is a location rule, not a courtesy. All locations where chemical services are provided to clients must have a dispensing sink with hot and cold running water. That sink is used for mixing chemicals and for disinfecting supplies, tools, equipment, and other materials. The sink must be labeled "not for public use."

Chemical services in a manicurist shop include acrylic liquid and powder, gel systems, primer, acetone soaks, callus softeners, and the EPA-registered disinfectant itself. If those products are mixed or used, the shop needs the labeled dispensing sink. A restroom sink down the hall is not a dispensing sink. A pedicure basin is not a dispensing sink. A client-facing beverage station is not a dispensing sink. The label is part of the requirement: not for public use tells a walk-in not to wash hands there and tells an inspector which bowl is the chemical and disinfection sink.

Hot and cold both matter. Cold-only water fails the rule. A sink that works only when the shop is not busy is still required whenever chemical services are provided. On-site laundry, if the shop has it, must be maintained in clean condition under WAC 308-20-110(1)(b). That sentence supports the linen rules later; it does not replace them.

No bar soap, no common towel

WAC 308-20-110(1)(c) and (d) kill two old salon habits. The shop must provide single-use hand soap and disposable or single-use hand-drying towels for customers. Use of bar soap or a common towel is prohibited.

A bar of soap sitting in a wet dish is a shared surface. A cloth towel hanging on a ring for everyone's hands is a common towel. Liquid soap in a pump, foam soap in a dispenser, and packaged single-use soap all satisfy single-use soap. Paper towels and other disposable towels satisfy the drying rule. A laundered cloth towel may be used by one person and then go to the soiled hamper; it may not hang as a community dryer.

Visible disease stops the service — then the station is disinfected

WAC 308-20-110(1)(e) and (f) are client-protection and worker-protection rules.

A licensee must not perform or continue services on a client with visible open sores, inflamed skin, rash, or parasitic infestations. If you can see an open sore on the finger you were about to file, you stop. Inflamed skin around the nail folds, a spreading rash on the foot, or signs of a parasitic infestation are the same stop. You are not diagnosing the disease. You are refusing the visible condition.

A licensee who knowingly has open sores, or who is exhibiting symptoms of an infectious or contagious disease or a disorder of the skin or a parasitic infestation, shall not provide services in manicuring while those symptoms are present. Working through a weeping hangnail because the book is full is a violation.

If a licensee or a client has exhibited those symptoms, the area in which the affected individual received or provided services, and all equipment and implements that could have possibly been touched by that individual shall be cleaned and disinfected, including the work and waiting areas. The rule is broader than wiping the table. Waiting-area chairs, the armrest, the lamp, the e-file handpiece, and implements that might have been touched all go through cleaning and disinfection.

Hands and client skin before every service

WAC 308-20-110(1)(k) and (l) are timed to the client, not to the shift.

A licensee must thoroughly wash his or her hands with soap and warm water or any equally effective cleansing agent immediately before providing services to each client, before checking a student's work on a client, or after smoking, eating, or using the restroom. An equally effective agent is allowed; the default picture is still soap and warm water. One wash at 9 a.m. does not cover the 2 p.m. fill. Each client is a new wash. Smoking, lunch, and the restroom reset the clock.

A client's skin upon which services will be performed must be washed with soap and warm water or wiped and/or sprayed with antiseptic or waterless hand cleanser approved for use on skin before a service. Pedicure feet and manicure hands both count. Wiping with an approved antiseptic or spraying a skin-approved waterless cleanser is allowed. Skipping the step because the client just washed in the restroom is not the rule. You still perform the pre-service skin cleanse at the table.

After each client, hair and nail clippings must immediately go in a closed covered waste container (WAC 308-20-110(1)(m)). Clippings left on the table or swept into an open bin fail the station standard.

Clean, then disinfect, then store clean

WAC 308-20-110(6) and (7) set the implement path. EPA-registered disinfectant is identified by the registration number on the label. Manufacturer directions, including contact time, always control.

All tools and implements must be cleaned and disinfected or disposed of after service on each client. Porous or single-use items that cannot be disinfected — nail files, buffer blocks, sanding bands, toe separators or sleeves, orangewood sticks, disposable nail bits — are given to the client or discarded. Presence of used articles in the work area is prima facie evidence of reuse.

Nonelectrical tools follow a four-step order: remove all hair and foreign material; clean thoroughly with soap or detergent and water; rinse thoroughly with clear, clean water; then disinfect with an EPA-registered disinfectant that has demonstrated bactericidal, fungicidal, and virucidal activity, used according to manufacturer's directions, or use an FDA-listed steam or dry-heat sterilizer. Tools without sharp edges must be totally immersed in the EPA-registered disinfectant according to manufacturer's directions. Electrical tools: remove debris, then disinfect with an EPA disinfectant specifically made for electrical tools and implements.

Closed nonairtight storage — UV is not the disinfectant

This is a high-yield Washington trap. WAC 308-20-110(6)(c) says all cleaned and disinfected tools and implements must be stored in a closed nonairtight container or UV sterilizer. UV sterilizers shall be used only for clean storage of already cleaned and disinfected tools and implements.

The UV cabinet is a dry storage box with a light, not a substitute for EPA disinfection. Putting a dirty cuticle nipper in a UV unit does not disinfect it. Sealing clean tools in an airtight jar also fails the nonairtight storage rule. Closed keeps dust off. Nonairtight keeps implements from sitting in a sealed wet microclimate.

WAC 308-20-110(9) splits clean from dirty. New and/or cleaned and disinfected tools must be stored separately from all other items. Used tools and implements must be stored in a labeled drawer or container at the work station. Storage cabinets, work stations, and storage drawers for cleaned and disinfected tools must be free of debris and used only for cleaned and disinfected tools. The used-tool drawer is labeled. It lives at the workstation. It is not mixed with the clean closed container. NIC practical language uses "To be disinfected"; Washington shops use a labeled used-tool drawer or container. Same idea: dirty stays dirty and labeled until it is cleaned and disinfected.

Disinfectant solutions: strength, debris, always available, changed daily

WAC 308-20-110(6)(d) is four duties in one sentence. All disinfecting solutions and agents must be kept at manufacturer recommended strengths to maintain effectiveness, be free from foreign material, be available for immediate use at all times the location is open for business, and be changed daily.

A cloudy jar full of nail dust is not at manufacturer strength and is not free of foreign material. A shop that mixes disinfectant on Monday and hopes it lasts the week fails the daily-change rule. A shop that hides the jar in a locked back room while clients are being served fails availability. Contact time still comes from the label; daily change does not shrink a ten-minute contact time to a dip-and-go.

Disposable protective gloves must be disposed of after service on each client (WAC 308-20-110(6)(f)). Gloves are not a multi-client item. They are not washed and hung to dry.

Linens: detergent plus chlorine bleach, dustproof clean storage, no overnight soiled pile

WAC 308-20-110(13) and (14) are linen law. No towels, linens, or robes shall be used more than once without proper laundering. Capes sit in the same laundry sentence: all towels, linens, capes, robes, and similar items shall be laundered in a washing machine with laundry detergent and chlorine bleach used according to manufacturer's directions for disinfecting purposes.

Detergent alone is not the Washington standard. Chlorine bleach is named. Follow the bleach manufacturer's directions for disinfection. A scented fabric-softener cycle is not a substitute.

Clean storage: a closed dustproof cabinet with solid sides and a top shall be provided for cleaned towels, linens, capes, and robes. An open shelf of clean towels collecting dust fails. A basket without a top fails.

Soiled storage: a hamper with solid sides or a receptacle that is closed and ventilated shall be provided for all soiled cloth towels, linens, capes, and robes and never left overnight. The overnight clause is the inspector's easy find. A Friday-night hamper sitting until Monday morning is a violation even if the towels were used only once. Soiled linens leave the floor before the shop goes dark.

A Tacoma booth renter and a Spokane employee are under the same WAC 308-20-110. The individual manicurist license does not create a private sanitation code. If chemical services happen, the labeled dispensing sink exists. If a towel touches a client, it is single-use until it is laundered with detergent and chlorine bleach. If a nipper is used, it is cleaned, disinfected, and stored closed and nonairtight — or it is sitting in the labeled used container waiting for that process. That is the Washington station standard.