SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com
Nail salons' workers, clients at risk from toxic chemicals: Insufficient regulation cited in call for improved safety practices
Monday, December 4, 2006
By LISA STIFFLER, P-I REPORTER
Close your eyes and walk past one of the city's countless nail salons and you might think you're passing an auto body paint shop. That's because many of the chemicals are the same, albeit in smaller quantities. The products that lacquer your toenails fire-engine red or make your fingernails luxuriously long and shapely can contain chemicals that are suspected or known to cause cancer and birth defects. For many dangerous ingredients, the long-term effects -- five, 10, even 20 years after exposure -- are unclear. Yet there are limited safeguards for nail salon workers and their customers.
There are no requirements for ventilation or protective gear for manicurists. Masks worn by some salon workers will shield them from dust, but not fumes. And the government isn't making sure that the nail polishes, removers and acrylic nail products are safe before they adorn your digits -- that's up to the manufacturers. "They are heavy-duty toxic chemicals so you can't just use them indiscriminately," said Susan Titus, an indoor-air-program specialist with the Environmental Protection Agency in Seattle. "You have to be aware of the chemicals that you are using. "I'm guessing that most of the customers that go in are not really thinking about it," she said.
Led by the EPA, local and state health officials, along with Seattle environmental and community activists, began meeting in July to learn more about the risks and to devise ways to better protect manicurists and their clients. The group will continue meeting next year. Participants plan to monitor air quality in salons and to increase their educational outreach. "We really don't have a good understanding of what the accumulative effects are of (nail salon) chemicals when they're put together," said Ryan Kellogg, public health supervisor for the Local Hazardous Waste Management Program in King County. "We really need to get a better handle on that." Until that happens, county officials are visiting salons and teaching workers about safer practices, including keeping products capped with tight lids and disposing of irritating solvents -- such as acetone and toluene -- in sealed trash cans.
The number of nail salons is multiplying rapidly, with between 800 and 1,200 new manicurist licenses issued by the state each year since 2002. There are more than 13,600 licensed manicurists in Washington and more than 400 nail salons in King County alone. Fueled by Vietnamese immigrants who have made this their niche business, the salons offer pampering at a reasonable price -- about $12 for manicures and acrylic nails for $25. For seven years, Tien Tran worked in poorly ventilated salons from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., six days a week, before opening her own shop in the Central Area six months ago. Tran wanted to create a healthier environment for her customers and workers. Her goal was "to build a nail salon that was less potent," said the 26-year-old woman, who has two manicurists working with her. Her Couture Nails & Spa is spacious and well-ventilated to the outdoors. After they use noxious solvents, workers dispose of them quickly. Containers holding strong-smelling products such as nail polish remover are capped except for the brief time when they're in use. Tran also switched to chamomile lotion to dry nails, rather than a pungent aerosol spray. "I know that the fumes may be hazardous, but I'm doing my best to do research to find products that have less fumes and are less hazardous for myself and for my customers," Tran said.
Nail-product manufacturers and some regulatory agencies say that workers and customers are not at risk from the chemicals. "Generally speaking, the exposure is very low-level in a nail salon, as compared to what we see in industrial use," said Elaine Fischer, spokeswoman for the state Department of Labor and Industries. "Not only is it not over the regulated limit, it's well under."
Like other businesses in which dangerous chemicals are used, salons are required to have a written training program to teach workers about the chemicals and what to do if there's an accident, such as a spill or the splashing of a product into someone's eyes. Product safety is part of the 600 hours of training required for a manicurist license. For many years, the safety focus for nail salons has been the risk of bacterial or fungal infections from salons practicing sloppy hygiene. Now those concerns have been expanded. "People need to be aware of what they're being exposed to," said Yalonda Sinde, outgoing executive director of the Community Coalition for Environmental Justice, which works to safeguard minority and low-income communities.
On the West Coast, the majority of manicurists are Vietnamese women. They're frequently immigrants who may have difficulty understanding chemical safety sheets -- though shop owners are supposed to provide them with information in their own language.
On an early Saturday morning, Huong "Jenny" Nguyen's hair and nail salon on Martin Luther King Jr. Way South has only a detectable scent of beauty supplies. Through an interpreter, Nguyen says that she notices the nail supply smells, but that they don't give her headaches or irritate her nose or throat. She wondered if maybe pregnant women would be more sensitive to the fumes. To increase the ventilation at her shop -- which does manicures, but not acrylic nails -- she'll open up the doors during the summer.
Sinde's group has joined with the Environmental Coalition of South Seattle to try to win grant money from the EPA to pay for better public education for salons such as Nguyen's. They want to teach salons about less-toxic products and ways to improve air quality, such as using ventilated manicure tables that suck up noxious fumes. Nationally, groups such as the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum have pushed to ban some of the most dangerous chemicals in cosmetics, including dibutyl phthalate, which is used in nail polishes.
The chemical is easily absorbed through the skin and intestinal tract and can cross the placenta into the fetus. It has been linked to development problems in the male genitals of humans and rats. Exposed pregnant rodents had fewer live pups and smaller offspring. Nail-polish makers and trade groups maintain that the ingredient as used in their products does not pose a threat to humans. The Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for regulating the safety of cosmetics, agrees. But the European Union banned the use of dibutyl phthalates in makeup in 2004. That led consumer groups this summer to pressure recalcitrant companies to remove it from products sold in the United States as well. The popular nail-polish maker OPI is one of the companies that finally agreed to eliminate the ingredient beginning with its winter 2006 collection. The reason? "They wanted one worldwide formula," said spokesman Harris Shepard. "OPI products are safe. Absolutely." It's up to manufacturers to make sure their products aren't dangerous, because the FDA's approach to cosmetic regulation is largely hands-off. Manufacturers make information sheets available to the public, with many posted online. But they are often too technical, incomplete or vague for most consumers or nail salon workers to understand. They might lack the exact concentrations of ingredients, fail to list components deemed "trade secrets" or state that exposure limits and health hazards have not been established. For ingredients that are listed, additional health information frequently is difficult to find, out-of-date or inconclusive.
The Cosmetic Ingredient Review Expert Panel -- an independent panel created and funded by the cosmetics industry -- is a key source for safety information, though it's tackled only a small fraction of ingredients used. The FDA lacks the authority to force cosmetic manufacturers to prove that their products are safe -- even if the public raises concerns. But complaints are rare, those in the industry say. The EU ban on dibutyl phthalates was because of concerns about the chemical generally, not specifically because it's a risk when used in makeup and nail polish, said Doug Schoon, co-chairman of the Nail Manufacturers Council, a trade group with the Professional Beauty Association. "It's rare when somebody is really injured by cosmetics," he said. "The truth is cosmetics are extraordinarily safe." Kellogg, the King County health official, objects to the notion "that we need to be seeing the cancers, that we need to be seeing the birth defects before we take action." "In public heath, we're about prevention," he said. "There's an interest in taking precautionary action in a setting like this."
FOLLOWING THE BEAUTY ROUTINE
NAIL TREATMENTS
Manicures: Old nail polish is removed. Fingernails are filed and cuticles gently pushed back from the nail. The nails can be buffed or painted with nail polish, typically with multiple coats.
Artificial nails: The lengthening or thickening of natural nails most commonly uses acrylics made from liquids and powders. The nail is then painted, sometimes with elaborate designs including jewels and glitter.
Fills: As the natural nail grows, a gap is created between the cuticle and the artificial nail. That gap can be "filled" with acrylic.
REDUCING EXPOSURE
Proper ventilation: Ventilate room to the outdoors; manicure tables should have well-maintained charcoal filters or ventilation leading outdoors.
Personal safety devices: Odor masks with charcoal filters protect from some vapors; protective gloves specific to the chemicals should be used.
Safe storage: Store chemicals with tight lids; open containers for short periods of time.
Cleanliness: Dispose of solvent-saturated tissues and cotton balls in plastic bags and metal, lidded garbage cans, which should be emptied daily.
Products: Select products that contain fewer toxic ingredients; read Material Safety Data Sheets for ingredient and safety information. Recent research has identified polishes and removers from Honeybee Gardens, Sante Kosmetic and en Vogue Sculptured Nail Systems as safer alternatives.
CHEMICALS OF CONCERN
Acetone: Solvent in nail polish remover, polish; can cause nose, throat and eye irritation, headaches, confusion, nausea, vomiting, unconsciousness and possibly coma, and shortening of the menstrual cycle.
Dibutyl phthalate: Plasticizer in nail polish; easily absorbed through the skin and intestinal tract and can cross the placenta into the fetus; can cause development problems in the male genitals of humans and rats; exposed pregnant rodents have fewer live pups and smaller offspring.
Toluene: Solvent in nail polish remover and nail treatments; low levels can cause tiredness, weakness, drunken-type actions, memory loss, nausea, loss of appetite, and hearing and color vision loss; high levels can cause birth defects in children including retarded mental abilities and growth.
Ethyl methacrylate: Used to form artificial nails; can cause eye and skin irritation, vapors may cause dizziness or suffocation.
Sources: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry; Environmental Protection Agency; Cosmetic Ingredient Review Expert Panel; New Ecology Inc.
No comments:
Post a Comment