Public health officials are investigating a spa offering "snail facials" in Chiang Mai as its mollusc mucus beauty treatments grow in popularity.
Inspectors descended on the Reelle Clinic Institute Malin Residence near Chiang Mai University on Huai Kaeo Road after a string of high-profile actors and actresses started using the spa's services.
The treatment involves placing snails on the face of the customer. The creatures leave a trail of mucus full of vitamins beneficial to human skin, according clinic owner Arnaud Decroix, who cited French research on the effectiveness of the technique.
Local health and fisheries officials said the inspection was conducted because the clinic is the first to offer snail facial treatment Thailand. They said they want to check the treatment is safe. They are also worried the snails, which were imported from France for breeding in Thailand, might affect the local ecosystem.
The officials raised concerns about the repeated use of the snails on people with different skin types. The treatment must be hygienic or could pose a risk to people with highly sensitive skin, said Itsara Nanawichit, chief of the consumer protection unit under the Chiang Mai public health office.
Experts are testing the snails for possible bacterial contamination.
Chiang Mai's deputy public health chief Surasing Wisarurat said the concept of a snail spa is not illegal. He said the treatment falls into the same category as fish spas — a type of pedicure in which fish eat the dead skin off people's feet.
However, snail spas are not listed in the 2008 Health Business Act, Mr Itsara said.
Environmentally, the government classifies snails from other countries as "alien creatures", said Chiang Mai fishery official Banchong Chamongsittham.
Importers must ask permission to bring them into the country, to protect local species from harm, he said.
Mr Decroix imported 100 of the Helix Aspersa Maxima snails from France. He later bred the creatures and now has more than 30,000 at his snail farm in Chiang Mai's Hang Dong district.
He said the first 100 snails went through the government's foreign species inspection, which he said was "very strict". He added that all snails get a two week rest after working at the clinic, to ensure their welfare.