Every two weeks I go to the nail salon and get a manicure. Without my nails perfectly painted and colored I feel incomplete. Every two weeks when I step into the nail salon I instantly smell the strong nail polish and chemicals that are being applied to customers nails across the store. Then I began thinking, are these strong fumes bad for the workers to be inhaling all day?
The strong smell of nail polish remover is mainly made up of Acetone, Ethyl Acetate and Butyl Acetate. Acetone is known to be toxic to humans, both on the skin and to breathe in. Nail Polish remover can cause your nails to be brittle or even irritate your skin while using it. Some workers at nail salons have acetone poisoning and are not even aware of it. Acetone positioning is when there is more acetone in your body then the live can breakdown. Even though acetone positioning most likely will not cause death, it can cause liver damage.
Asian health services and cancer prevention institute of California conducted a randomized controlled study on 20 nail salon workers and owners. Through this study they discovered that half of 74 salons had poor methods for ventilations, this is a huge issue because this allows workers to inhale a lot more poisons then they should. The study also reported that 80% of workers reported health concerns due to work such and 50% of workers reported acute health symptoms (headaches, dizziness, difficulty breathing, skin irritations.) This study provided some information but I think by increasing the sample size of nail salons visited it would be a better study. I also think it is worth mentioning that these acute health symptoms could be a result of outside factors such as living conditions at home.
Other then acute health risks some studies have reported a link between miscarriage and salon work. Esther John, Ph.D conducted a study at the university of North Carolina at Chapel Hill school of public health. His results were based on a survey and concluded, “ we found association between spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) and the number of hours worked per day in cosmetology, the number of chemical services performed per week, the use of formaldehyde-based disinfectants, and work in salons where nail sculpturing was performed by other employees.” Being that this is the first of many studies to follow I am going to conclude that correlation might not equal causation. I think a study needs to be conducted to measure the levels of toxins being ingested by salon workers.
Not only has the concern of salon workers health be mentioned for concern but the health of people like me who go to the salon every 2 weeks and get a “gel manicure”. Gel manicure came out to please customers by guaranteeing the polish would last for 2 weeks. When applying gel you place your hands under UV lights to allow the gel polish to set properly. Setting your hands under UV lights brought concern for many people. UV lights tend to cause cancer and these lights were no exception. A recent study conducted by a few doctors at the Medical College of Georgia concluded that even with numerous exposures to these lamps, the risk for developing cancer is small. The study also showed that it would only take 11 visits over two years to reach the levels of exposure that would cause sun damage. After hearing this information many salons switched over to non- UV lamps.
All in all, salon workers are putting themselves at a high risk everyday that they go to work and this needs to be explored more through studies and research.
http://www.chemistryislife.com/the-chemistry-of-nail-polish-remover
http://www.healthline.com/health/acetone-poisoning#Symptoms3
http://www.latimes.com/fashion/alltherage/la-ar-gel-manicures-cancer-study-20140529-story.html
Those are great studies to prove the point that there are lots of harmful fumes and chemicals being used at nail salons. I think it is also important to consider their race. A study done in Alameda, CA reported that 59-80% of nail salons are run by Vietnamese women who face socio-cultural barriers that can also effect their workplace. This is a large majority, and while this study was only a pilot study, it did exactly what it needed to do prove that their needs to be more research on this topic. I really like this study because it suggests that there be more emphasis on having health interventions, to help people who may be struggling with a social barrier in America. This could help them get the resources they need to have a safe work place. The fact that Vietnamese immigrants are the majority of nail salon owners, at least in California, means that they could have a safer workplace if they were introduced to the proper resources, and this might be why the results of so many studies show how their health is in danger. They are definitely aware of the risk and hazard, but might not know how to keep themselves safe.
Source: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10900-008-9107-7
This blog caught my eye first because it was at the top of the page when I refreshed it, and second because I just got a manicure over break and was curious as to why manicures can be bad. When reading, I became interested in finding out more about acetone poisoning, since I use nail polish remover, and found this article/a> that gave more of a description of acetone poisoning and its symptoms. Its scary to think that something you though was so harmless in life, like a manicure could have any even slightly sever consequences, like a miscarriage even.
I’m actually really happy someone did a blog post on this (bc i almost did,) since it was always something that had me thinking (especially since I almost always have my nails done.) The one time I decided to do acrylics I literally lost all the vitamin in my nails. They went from being extremely strong, to breaking after anything they touched. Now I automatically knew that it was having a negative affect on me, but now to find out how it affects the manicurists is crazy!!! thanks for this post