Sec. 44.46.020. - Duties of department. - Alaska Statutes

(a) The Department of Environmental Conservation shall

(1) have primary responsibility for coordination and development of policies, programs, and planning related to the environment of the state and of the various regions of the state;

(2) have primary responsibility for the adoption and enforcement of regulations setting standards for the prevention and abatement of all water, land, subsurface land, and air pollution, and other sources or potential sources of pollution of the environment, including by way of example only, petroleum and natural gas pipelines;

(3) promote and develop programs for the protection and control of the environment of the state;

(4) take actions that are necessary and proper to further the policy declared in AS 46.03.010 ;

(5) adopt regulations for

(A) the prevention and control of public health nuisances;

(B) the regulation of sanitation and sanitary practices in the interest of public health;

(C) standards of cleanliness and sanitation in connection with the construction, operation, and maintenance of a camp, cannery, food handling establishment, food manufacturing plant, mattress manufacturing establishment, industrial plant, school, barbershop, hairdressing, manicuring, esthetics, tattooing and permanent cosmetic coloring, body piercing, or ear piercing establishment, soft drink establishment, beer and wine dispensaries, and for other similar establishments in which lack of sanitation may create a condition that causes disease;

(D) the regulation of quality and purity of commercially compressed air sold for human respiration.

(b) The department's regulations for tattooing and permanent cosmetic coloring shops and for body piercing shops must include requirements that

(1) the shop be equipped with appropriate sterilizing equipment, with availability of hot and cold running water, and with an appropriate waste receptacle;

(2) the owner of the shop is responsible for ensuring that case history cards are kept for each client for a period of three years after the client's most recent tattooing and permanent cosmetic coloring or body piercing;

(3) a practitioner in the shop may use only instruments for tattooing and permanent cosmetic coloring or body piercing that have been sterilized in accordance with methods approved by the department.