The High Price of Beauty?

[Guest guest]

Note: I bet that " downdraft tables " with exhaust hoses going outside

would help these

nail workers a lot.

http://www.google.com/search?q=downdraft+table

Why don't they use them?

---------------------------

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071008/sole-smith

The High Price of Beauty

by VIRGINIA SOLE-SMITH

[from the October 8, 2007 issue]

Tomi Tran works as a nail technician in Raleigh, North Carolina. She

pays around $100 per week to rent a booth in a hair salon, buys all

her polishes and supplies and finds her own clients, often giving free

manicures at local malls and distributing fliers to drum up business.

It's hard work, but Tran, 22, says it's heaven compared with her last

salon job.

" It was basically a sweatshop, " she explains. " I would feel

lightheaded and get terrible headaches from the smell of the

chemicals, and I was working around sixty-four hours a week, usually

with no lunch breaks. " The final straw came when Tran became sick with

a stomach virus but her boss told her she would lose her job if she

didn't come to work. " She told me I had to work, but I could rest in

the back in between customers, " she says. Tran decided to quit and

risk going into business for herself so she could choose her own hours

and avoid the acrylic nail products that made her so sick.

Tara Horton, 37, of Sanger, California, wishes she had dropped out of

beauty school. " Out of the eleven of us training to do nails, one

woman had a baby that was stillborn at eight months, and another was

born all messed up with his bowels and intestinal tract on the outside

of his body, " she says. " I remember thinking that's a pretty high

failure rate. " Horton began working in salons and later lost two

babies herself and was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. " You just

don't go from being a nonsmoking, healthy, active person to dying of

cancer without asking why, " she says. " Now, I realize, we were

standing over those chemicals all day long. "

Stories like Tran's and Horton's have become rampant as the nail salon

industry has exploded in the past ten years, with the number of nail

technicians in America jumping 374 percent to more than 380,000

nationwide, with women making up 96 percent of the industry workforce.

But " no one is really looking at these folks, " says andra Gorman,

director of science and research for Women's Voices for the Earth, an

environmental justice organization in Missoula, Montana, who co-wrote

its March report called Glossed Over: Health Hazards With Toxic

Exposure in Nail Salons. " There's a major lack of studies, so these

women are going to work and having symptoms, but the authorities are

telling them they're fine. "

In fact, the cosmetology industry uses more than 10,000 chemicals in

its products, 89 percent of which have not been evaluated for safety,

according to the nonprofit Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, which corrals

available evidence in its Skin Deep database (cosmeticsdatabase.com).

The polishes, acrylics and other products used in nail salons contain

some twenty chemicals flagged as having " potential symptoms and health

effects " by the Environmental Protection Agency. The list includes

solvents like acetone, which may cause central nervous system

depression, and ethyl methacrylate, linked to eye, skin and

respiratory tract irritation. It also highlights chemicals banned by

the European Union and since removed by international brands like OPI,

Sally Hansen and Revlon. Those include formalin, which may cause

asthma-like respiratory problems and cancer in high or prolonged

doses, and toluene, a solvent with the potential to cause dizziness,

headaches and liver and kidney damage. Perhaps most contentious of all

is dibutyl phthalate, a plasticizer that makes nail polish more

flexible. It has been linked to eye and upper respiratory system

irritation and may be toxic to the reproductive system.

" Most kinds of house paint are less toxic than what you find in nail

polish, " says Cora Roelofs, ScD, an assistant professor at the

University of Massachusetts, Lowell, whose research has documented

acute health problems like skin irritations and asthma among nail

salon workers in the Boston area. " Yet we still know very little about

more serious health effects, nor do we understand how these chemicals

interact with each other in the salon environment. "

It's the lack of knowledge about nail polish's potential reproductive

toxicity that's most chilling for advocates and salon workers. " We're

seeing a substantial number of folks from the beauty industry who are

concerned about whether they can work during their pregnancies, " says

Meyer, MD, an assistant professor in the Division of Occupational

and Environmental Medicine at the University of Connecticut Health

Center. He responds to queries on a risk line run by the Connecticut

Department of Health and estimates that the center receives seventy to

140 calls a year from concerned workers or their physicians. An

analysis of a California occupational health hot line found that

manicurists and cosmetologists were the third-largest occupational

sector to call with pregnancy-related inquiries.

" Just because we don't know something is dangerous doesn't mean it's

safe, " says Mark Cullen, MD, director of Occupational and

Environmental Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine. " These

are a class of chemicals where the data is incomplete but the concern

is real. " Studies show that when laboratory workers are exposed to

similar solvents without proper ventilation, there is a small but

increased risk for miscarriages and birth defects similar to fetal

alcohol syndrome, explains Dr. Meyer. Meanwhile, most research on

phthalates comes from animal studies, making it difficult to predict

human response.

But this lack of data allows the industry to dismiss health issues out

of hand. " There are no risks to these products if you use them

safely, " says Doug Schoon, vice president of science and technology

for Creative Nail Design, a leading manufacturer of professional nail

products. " It's a misconception to say these products haven't been

studied. They've been looked at by the leading experts in the world

and found to be safe. "

By " leading experts in the world, " Schoon means the Cosmetic

Ingredient Review, which he describes as " famous for being fair and

honest. " The CIR is a panel of scientists funded by the industry's

Cosmetic, Fragrance and Toiletry Association (CFTA) who assess the

safety of ingredients used in cosmetics. They're quick to distance

themselves from the manufacturers: " The industry gets the privilege of

paying to support us, but that's pretty much it, " says Alan Andersen,

PhD, the board's director and scientific coordinator. " I think it's

actually quite an unfair leap to suggest that there is any influence.

Our situation closely parallels the situation at the FDA, where

companies pay user fees for safety assessments of medical devices.

Would you say the industry is controlling the FDA? "

Well, you might. " The CIR has this weird semi-deputized status with

the FDA, " explains Mark Schapiro, author of Exposed: The Toxic

Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power.

" The FDA doesn't have the manpower to do their own safety assessments,

so they rely on the CIR for all their data. " Indeed, an FDA spokesman

who preferred not to be named is quick to give the CIR his blessing:

" They're really good about being objective; I've never seen any bias.

The system does work, though it might feel a little bit weak to

consumers. "

" A little bit weak " is putting it mildly. Even if the CIR " doesn't

hesitate to tell a company if an ingredient is unsafe, " as the FDA

spokesman claims, that company is on the honor system to heed its

advice--the panel has no authority to restrict the use of a product.

It's clear the industry has a seat at the table. After all, it's their

table; CFTA and CIR share office space and support staff in

Washington. " When I attended the CIR's assessment of dibutyl

phthalate, the room was full of PR folks and a CFTA lobbyist dominated

the meeting, " says Bryony Schwan, a founding member of Campaign for

Safe Cosmetics. " He was sitting there doing calculations on the back

of a napkin, dismissing any data that conflicted with his point of

view. "

The numbers tell the rest of the story. While the European Union's

Cosmetics Directive has banned some 1,200 chemicals, the FDA has

restricted only nine for use in cosmetics. " The EU appears to have

more authority, " admits the FDA spokesman. " The burden of the FDA is

that we must demonstrate an ingredient is harmful as used before we

can ban it. " The CIR has concluded that it has insufficient data on

the safety of an additional 119 chemicals but balks at the idea of

regulating them per the precautionary principle. " Ours is a risk

assessment approach, and it requires data, " says the CIR's Andersen.

When it comes to nail salons, the FDA is quick to point out that any

health risks presented by a hazardous working environment are out of

its jurisdiction--even if the hazards are posed by cosmetics. This

responsibility is shared between the Environmental Protection Agency

(EPA), which regulates indoor air quality, and the Occupational Safety

and Health Administration (OSHA), which sets permissible exposure

limits for all the chemicals nail salon workers use.

The EPA first took an interest in nail salons when Asian community

groups around Houston approached its regional office with concerns.

The Region 6 office published A Guide to Protect the Health of Nail

Salon Workers and Their Working Environment in May 2004, which

outraged the industry. " It's a ridiculous piece of garbage, " Schoon

said of the brochure. " The EPA was very embarrassed and pulled it off

their website. " Region 6's Nail Salon Project was transferred to the

DC office, and in March a revised manual, Protecting the Health of

Nail Salon Workers, appeared. This time, " we involved all the

stakeholders, " says Clive Davies, coordinator of the project,

including Schoon and the Nail Manufacturers' Council, another industry

association.

Their influence is palpable. The 2004 manual stated, " Nail salon

products may contain many potentially harmful chemicals that can be a

major cause of occupational asthma as well as other health and

environmental concerns. " The updated version takes a different stance:

" Products that nail salon workers use are critical to performing

high-quality services, and indeed, without them, these services would

not be possible. " It later adds a caveat: " If proper care is not

taken, overexposure may occur and could result in adverse health

effects, such as skin irritation, allergic reaction, or serious eye

injury. "

Perhaps the biggest drawback of the updated manual is that the EPA

evaluates a chemical's health risks based on whether it exceeds OSHA's

permissible exposure limits, developed for industrial settings. As Dr.

Meyer notes, " These standards are designed to prevent acute problems

like neurological intoxication or respiratory difficulty that develop

soon after a large dose. They aren't set up to assess cancer and

chronic disease which develop from long-term, low-dose exposure. " Many

of the standards also haven't changed since OSHA first set limits in

1968, when the populations it studied were mostly male. " They don't

take into account female reproductive health issues, " says Meyer.

The one thing scientists, advocates, industry and government agencies

agree on is that more education about " best practices " is crucial to

avoiding, or at least minimizing, health problems. But it's a stopgap

measure, passing the buck to the technicians--who have the least

control over the situation. " Education only goes so far, " says Meyer.

" It shouldn't be incumbent on the workers to be their own protectors. "

Especially because making " best practices " happen in the real world is

a complicated process for this workforce, whose average salary is less

than $17,000 per year; many rent booths or work on commission, meaning

traditional workers' rights laws don't protect them. About 40 percent

of nail technicians are Vietnamese immigrants, many of whom don't

speak much English and earn as little as $50 for an eight- to ten-hour

day.

In California, where 80 percent of the state's 80,000 technicians are

Vietnamese, advocates are working on filling the research and

education gaps through a coalition of nonprofits called the California

Healthy Nail Salons Collaborative. They plan to publish the first

baseline study of nail salon workers' health. Community advocate Lenh

Tsan makes weekly visits to hundreds of salons in the Bay Area, toting

a rolling suitcase filled with rubber gloves, face masks and incense

to test air circulation, and collecting reports of eye infections,

skin rashes, asthma, headaches, nausea and dizziness. She encourages

workers and owners to come together to improve conditions, but it's

slow going. " There's a lot of fear, " Tsan says. " It takes several

visits before they get comfortable enough to tell us what's going on. "

" My community is suffering silent, " says C.M. Nguyen, 47, a Vietnamese

immigrant and salon worker Tsan recruited to help. " They have lots of

concerns, but they don't like me to speak out. " Tsan thinks the

problem is partly cultural: " In Asian culture, you're taught to be

very respectful of hierarchy, " she explains. " It's hard for these

women to speak up. So if your boss doesn't care about chemicals and

safety, why should you? "

It's also just plain bad for business. Owners and workers alike are

concerned about how customers will respond to nail technicians wearing

carbon filter masks and gloves, as well as the expense of installing

better ventilation systems. And the industry's huge growth makes for

cutthroat competition. In Oakland, eleven nail salons crowd into a

five-block stretch of Grand Avenue. " I'm trying to get everyone around

here to agree to raise their prices by $2, but I don't know if they'll

do it, " says Jeannie, a 23-year-old nail technician who runs one of

the salons with her mother. They both suffer constant allergies and

want to switch from generic products to safer, more expensive brands

of polish and acrylic. But long work days and relentless worries about

making the rent on their salon make it hard to find time or money for

changes.

Non-Vietnamese salons feel the pressure too. Horton says that when she

quit, her co-workers didn't want to hear it: " They like their salons,

they like their gossip, they're in denial about what's going on. " What

many US workers do get fired up about are the " discount chop shops "

stealing their business. " The technicians that are going to get sick

are those girls who are normally of Oriental background. They are not

well trained, they don't get the education and they have very poor

work habits, " says Long Island-based Debbie Doerlamm, who runs

beautytech.com. Nguyen isn't surprised: " It's like a cold war between

us. "

The Collaborative's biggest victory is the Safe Cosmetics Act, passed

by the California State Assembly in 2005 after a handful of salon

workers testified--as beauty industry lobbyists passed out bags of

free makeup. The law, which went into effect January 1, is the first

of its kind and requires manufacturers to disclose all potentially

harmful product ingredients to the state health department. The State

of Washington is considering a similar bill, and advocates hope the

state-by-state approach will inspire more companies to voluntarily

reformulate all their products. But there's no question that what

salon workers really need is a federal law requiring the FDA, EPA and

OSHA to hold the beauty industry to a much tougher standard, and more

scientific research to pin down exactly what they're up against. Until

then, a handful of hard-to-impose " best practices " is the only

protection we can offer these workers, who didn't realize that

painting nails would mean putting their health on the line.