Paper dust masks (like those most often seen in a salon), however, only protect the wearer from some dusts but not chemicals. Using a proper mask to protect workers from chemicals or nail-filing dust would also help. Public health officials say wearing nitrile gloves (not latex or vinyl) could help shield workers from chemical exposures. Nail salons could help protect workers by providing certain safety equipment. Yet, as with many environmental exposures, it can be difficult to prove that an adverse health effect was the direct result of workplace exposures instead of those encountered elsewhere in life. Some of these chemicals are also linked with birth defects. Respiratory problems, unsurprisingly, were typically associated with the reporting of workplace exposures such as poor air quality.
Studies documenting the health problems of nail technicians often describe respiratory, skin and musculoskeletal issues. For the typical nail salon client these chemicals may not pose a large threat, but for workers who are exposed to this potentially toxic brew day after day there’s an elevated level of risk. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which sets workplace safety standards, cites a laundry list of chemicals that nail salon workers encounter daily. Moreover, these substances could be swallowed while eating, drinking or puffing on a cigarette during a break. The compounds could also settle into workers’ eyes. Technicians could also inhale harmful vapors or mists from the chemicals in the shop. The risks are many: Dust shavings from filed nails can settle on the skin like pollen and cause irritation or can be inhaled (and those small particles could contain chemicals from the polishes or acrylics). There are also few reports looking at how each compound individually affects nail workers. Yet it is difficult to know how these chemicals affect the body because current evaluations do not look at these substances comprehensively. When combined, however, they could potentially cause even greater harm. Chemicals inside of the glues, removers, polishes and salon products-which technicians are often exposed to at close proximity and in poorly ventilated spaces-can be hazardous individually. Workplace conditions in certain nail salons, expertly laid out last week in an investigation by The New York Times’s Sarah Maslin Nir, can alleviate or exacerbate these issues. But it’s not just the amount of those substance that can turn them toxic, it is also the way they get into workers’ bodies. As the nation’s 375,000 nail technicians buff, polish and file our fingers and toes, that workplace exposure to chemicals in the polish and glue can pose a real threat.