Consumer Warning! Fish Pedicures; Not as Safe as we Thought

Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo

I certainly won't forget the day when my Morning Show executive producer (at the time) told me to find a salon that not only offered the so-called "fish pedicure", a treatment that has customers soaking their feet in a tank of water with small carp fish nibbling away at your dead and calloused skin. And then on top of that she told me I would also need to find and bring in a fish tank to our studio in midtown Manhattan so an audience member could try the new fish fad.


Up for the challenge (but really what choice did I have) I managed to put the segment together and pulled an audience member to volunteer for the free fishy pedicure. 


Now fast forward 4 years and British scientists are reporting today that the toothless carp used for these pedicures may carry bacteria that could cause a variety of dangerous skin and soft tissue infections!


My apologies to the poor audience woman I convinced to try it!


Although the threat has been spoken about since the new fish fetish hit U.S salons in 2008, it wasn't until last spring that British fish inspectors checked Indonesian fish shipments on their way to British spas revealed the fish carried strains of bacteria that could cause infections like Vinbrio Vulnifcus, Vibrio Cholerae and S.agalactiae..(aka really bad and gross infections you definitely don't want to get!).


An ABC News report stated:


"In the United States, "there have been no published reports to date regarding illness from fish pedicures," the CDC said in a June 2011 document. "However, fish-free foot-baths in nail salons have been implicated in several outbreaks of nontuberculous mycobacterial infections, including the species Mycobacterium abscessus and M. fortuitum," which have left customers with boils and scars."


So although sandal season is upon us- stay clear of any fishy fish pedicures and just go with the good old hand scrubbing ones, your feet will thank you!