|
Mindfully.org
note: No studies or assessments are required because it has been
known for decades that the chemicals used in the nail polish industry and
associated chemicals can do cause cancer. Both technicians and their
clients are at risk. Read
about |
A proliferation of nail salons in Alameda County, powered mostly by Vietnamese women, has prompted a study of health effects from staying all day in poorly ventilated shops with potentially cancer-causing chemicals.
Asian Health Services in Oakland and the Northern California Cancer Center will assess working conditions, take a closer look at the chemicals used in nail salons and find out if their assumption is true that about 90 percent of nail salon workers in the county are Vietnamese women.
The study will be the basis for later studies that will determine specific health effects, most importantly cancer, from exposure to chemicals used in the shops.
"I think the industry has been in place here for about 20 years, and we never had any formal studies on health effects," said Kim Nguyen, a community and patient relation manager with Asian Health Services. "When Vietnamese women arrive here, they cannot work in the mainstream because they don't have the English skills, and a lot of them are not college graduates. So how can you find a job? If you want to become a manicurist, it doesn't take very long, maybe three to six months."
Nguyen said many women working in nail salons do so in bad neighborhoods in Oakland where they shut the doors for safety, which traps the chemicals inside all day.
"They don't like the smell, but they have to do it for survival," said Nguyen.
She said Vietnamese women tend to gravitate toward work in nail salons because they are patient people, which nail work requires, and they are people who "want to help others to look good."
Peggy Reynolds, the co-investigator on the study who works with the Northern California Cancer Center, said benzine and methylene chloride, two agents that may cause cancer, are used in nail salons as solvents.
She said the impetus for the study was the new and vulnerable demographic in the work force that doesn't speak English and a new California law signed last October that requires cosmetics manufacturers to report to the California Department of Health Services any carcinogens and reproductive toxins in their products.
"There is an obligation to better understand what risks there are to potentially heavily exposed women in this workforce," said Reynolds. "Our study is in the initial steps to begin to better characterize the workforce."
In addition to cancer risks, the researchers will also be looking at reproductive effects, respiratory and other health issues that could come up from breathing nail polish remover, said Reynolds.
source: http://ebdailynews.com/article/2006-11-24-eb-nails 26nov2006
|
To
send us your comments, questions, and suggestions click
here |