Nail Care

What To Look For

Attractive and desirable though they are, no nail products are 100 percent safe and nontoxic. You can find products with fewer hazardous chemicals than their conventional counterparts, but try to use these sparingly or save them for special occasions

What To Look For
Opt for water-based, rather than solvent-based, polishes and removers that pose less of a threat to your respiratory tract. But be aware that these still contain acrylic polymers that could cause dermatitis and nasal irritation, ethyl lactate, which can irritate the skin and respiratory tracts, and polyurethane formers and binders. Toluene diisocyanate (TDI), a component of polyurethane, "can cause airways sensitivity, and reexposure to TDI can cause chemically induced asthma" when inhaled, according to Phil Landrigan and Herbert Needleman in Raising Healthy Children in a Toxic World (Rodale, 2001).

Shopping and Usage Tips

Maintaining Healthy Nails
The most effective way to avoid problematic ingredients in nail products is to leave nails natural. Below are some tips from the American Academy of Dermatologists on keeping your nails healthy without chemicals:

• Keep nails clean and dry. This helps keep bacteria and other infectious organisms from collecting under the nail.
• If toenails are thick and difficult to cut, soak them in warm salt water (one teaspoon of salt to a pint of water) for five to ten minutes.
• Nails should be cut straight across and rounded slightly at the tip for maximum strength. Use sharp nail scissors or clippers. Filing the nails into points will weaken them.
• Avoid biting fingernails, and do not remove your cuticle.
• Use a "fine" textured file to keep nails shaped and free of snags.
• Rather than color nails to hide conditions such as psoriasis or fungus, treat your nails as directed by your physician.

Safe Use
If you do choose to use polishes, keep in mind that even less-toxic polishes should be used with care. "These compounds should be used sparingly in well-ventilated environments," says Luz Claudio, M.D., of the Department of Community & Preventive Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Also, she adds, "because of their developmental stages, children can be exquisitely susceptible to these toxics."

Here are a few tips to minimize exposure to chemical hazards:

• Pregnant women should avoid all nail polish.
• Do not paint the nails of infants, toddlers or children who still put their fingers in their mouths.
• Try to discourage teenagers from painting their nails, as teens are particularly susceptible to hormone-disrupting chemicals during puberty.
• Avoid touching your nails until you are sure they are dry to avoid contact dermatitis.
• Make sure to keep all nail care products out of reach of children and pets.

Disposal
Nail polish and nail polish removers are considered household hazardous wastes and should be disposed of accordingly. See earth911.org for disposal sites near you.

Product Comparisons

Product Comparisons

Attractive and desirable though they are, no nail products are 100 percent safe and nontoxic. The products below, however, contain fewer hazardous chemicals than their conventional counterparts.

GG Rating
Best: These products don't contain any ingredients that would pose health risks if they were used daily.

Better: These products are better than their conventional counterparts but still contain chemicals that could irritate your nose and throat if repeatedly inhaled. Try to limit the use of these "Better" products to special occasions.

The Backstory

The Backstory

Problematic Chemicals
If you've ever been in the same room as someone applying nail polish, you're well aware of the noxious odors emanating from those tiny bottles. Nail polishes have come under fire lately for containing three chemicals dubbed the "toxic trio": toluene, a solvent linked to low birth weight and development problems in children; formaldehyde, a known carcinogen emitted as certain preservatives break down; and dibutyl phthalate, a hormone disrupting chemical used to keep polishes flexible. All three appear on California's Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or reproductive harm.

Concern over the health effects that the toxic trio pose to both nail salon workers and to average women led the European Union to ban them from use in cosmetics in 2004. The U.S. has no such legislation, but individual states have started instituting similar laws. California's Safe Cosmetic Act of 2005, which went into effect January 1, 2007, requires companies that sell products in California to report the use of compounds that appear in the Proposition 65 list.

In the absence of federal guidelines, some manufacturers have begun eliminating them on their own. Nail giant OPI has removed both DBP and toluene from all products, although they still use formaldehyde in nail hardeners.  Sally Hansen has also removed toluene and DBP and does not add formaldehyde, but the latter may still be present as a byproduct of urea-based preservatives. According to the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, Orly International has stopped using DBP as well.

These rules and voluntary changes, however, don't address the other unhealthy ingredients in tiny nail polish bottles. Solvents such as acetone and ethyl, butyl and amyl acetate can trigger headaches, dizziness, and eye, nose and throat irritation. Methacrylate resins, used to make acrylic nails, can irritate skin and cause redness, allergic reactions, pain and swelling in the nail bed. Ethyl and methyl methacrylate are the two adhesives used in applying acrylic nails, and they too are extremely irritating to skin, eyes and respiratory tracts. Methyl methacrylate has generated so many worker complaints of allergic reactions that it has been banned in 30 states.

Social Issues: Nail Salons
The chemicals used in nail products pose a unique threat to nail salon workers, who inhale chemicals that can cause birth defects and cancer day after day. Ninety-five percent of these workers are women, many of child-bearing age, according to the report "Glossed Over: Health Hazards Associated with Toxic Exposure in Nail Salons" by the advocacy group Women's Voices for the Earth.

A 2004 survey of New York City salon employees found that 37 percent often or sometimes had skin problems, 37 percent suffered from eye irritation, 57 percent from allergies and 18 percent from asthma.  On a more severe level, a study published in the March 2002 Neuropsychiatry, Neuropsychology, & Behavioral Neurology found that workers' exposure to solvents and acrylic resins resulted in poor performance on cognitive and attention tests, and they had a less acute sense of smell. Most of these problems have been associated with poor ventilation, but there are currently no government requirements mandating adequate ventilation or other protections from chemicals.

Complicating matters is the fact that a large percentage of salon workers are non-English speakers, making it difficult for them to understand product labels, warnings or other literature on how to minimize exposure to harmful chemicals. Product manufacturers often supply salon owners and employees with material safety data sheets (MSDS) that list specific chemicals and their potential hazards, but these usually aren't printed in a worker's native language. By law, employers are required to explain hazards to their employees, averting the language barrier, but enforcement of the law is lax and this isn't always done.

Resources and References

Resources and References

From the Green Guide:
The Dirty Dozen Chemicals in Cosmetics

Women's Health: 10 Ways to Avoid Reproductive Hazards

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

From Outside Sources:
Campaign for Safe Cosmetics: www.safecosmetics.org

Environmental Working Group's Cosmetics Safety Database: www.cosmeticsdatabase.com

Household Products Database: householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov

References
"Glossed Over: Health Hazards Associated with Toxic Exposure in Nail Salons," Women's Voices for the Earth, February 2007, www.womenandenvironment.org

"Protecting the Health of Nail Salon Workers." Environmental Protection Agency, March 2007, www.epa.gov/dfe/pubs/projects/salon/index.htm.

Greenhouse, Steven. "At Nail Salons, Beauty Treatments Can Have a Distinctly Unglamorous Side." The New York Times, August 19, 2007. www.nytimes.com.