TURN GRANT Focus Areas Healthy Cosmetology Many of the chemicals used in hair and nail salons are potentially hazardous to the health and safety of workers and customers, yet safety practices and regulations have not caught up with the potential public health and safety risks. Salons often inhabit spaces that were not designed to handle the air quality and safety issues and salon owners and workers are not trained in health and safety hazards of toxic chemicals, thus are unaware of potential problems. Adding to the problem, is the large populations of immigrant workers, especially in nail salons, that do not have English as their first language and do not have regulatory or basic health and safety information in their native language. In addition, there are regulatory roles at multiple municipal departments and state agencies that aren’t clear or coordinated. The combination of hazardous chemicals, inadequate ventilation, unclear multi-jurisdictional regulatory roles, language and cultural barriers, and lack of training on health and safety make promoting safe salons both necessary and particularly challenging. Professional salons use many products from hair dyes, bleaches, permanents, straighteners, nail hardeners, artificial nails, polishes, drying agents, polish removers, and disinfectants that contain hazardous chemicals. Workers and customers can then breathe dust and vapors or come into skin contact with the products. Many of these chemicals are solvents that evaporate into the air at room temperature. Many solvents are classified as reproductive toxins and many of the workers are young women of reproductive age. In addition, dark hair dyes have been associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer. The disinfectants used in salons are registered pesticides which are toxic, and some such as quaternary compounds, can trigger asthma. Overexposure to the chemicals in nail products are associated with reproductive harm, respiratory ailments, occupational asthma, eye and skin irritation, neurological effects such as headache, dizziness, sleep disorders and nausea. Some nail products contain formaldehyde, a known human carcinogen. Contact dermatitis and occupational asthma are other ailments common among salon workers. Often the ventilation in a salon is inadequate to protect inhabitants from being exposed to chemical vapors. State building codes require that salons have plentiful fresh air, but do not specify that contaminants are removed.  And even with the best ventilation system overhead, workers are working at close range within their breathing zone with these chemicals. Additionally, adjacent spaces with shared ventilation systems or shared wall construction receive and circulate chemicals from the salon. Furthermore, it is not clear that most salons are satisfying even the basic requirements of adequate general ventilation year-round. The opportunities to promote toxics use reduction and improved health and safety are great. Past TURN Project Links Over the last several years the Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI) at UMASS Lowell has sponsored several community grant projects that have examined the use of toxic chemicals in hair and nail salons and sponsored trainings and events to foster awareness about health effects and available alternatives. These projects include the Roxbury Healthy Hair Committee and Healthy Hair Show in Boston featuring less toxic products and processes for women of color; development of vocational cosmetology toxics use reduction curriculum, statewide training of health officers in health and safety issues in nail salons, research on less toxic salon projects and the development of a Model Salon. To further promote health and safety in hair and nail salons, TURI convened a multi-stakeholder Healthy Cosmetology Committee in January 2003. See the following links for projects and materials: Roxbury Health Hair Campaign http://community.turi.org/smallbusiness/healthy_hair.shtml TUR in the Cosmetology Vocational Department http://community.turi.org/smallbusiness/HealthyCosmetology.shtml Healthy Cosmetology Resources Massachusetts Department of Public Health Indoor Air Quality in Nail Salons Fact Sheet http://www.mass.gov/dph/beha/iaq/nails/nails.htm Massachusetts Department of Labor, Division of Occupational Safety Nail Salon Fact Sheet http://www.mass.gov/dos/iaqdocs/iaq-400.htm The Massachusetts Division of Occupational Safety can provide non-regulatory inspections and advice on ventilation and chemical management issues.  Contact Rick Rabin or Nancy Comeau at 1-617-969-7177. Artificial Fingernail Products A HESIS Guide to Chemical Exposures in the Nail Salon, State of California Department of Health Services http://www.dhs.ca.gov/ohb/HESIS/artnails.htm Lab Safety Factsheet – Safety in Nail Salons http://www.labsafety.com/refinfo/ezfacts/ezf281.htm EPA Nail Salon Brochure (English and Vietnamese) (under revision) http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/dfe/pubs/ Toxics Use Reduction Trainings and Resources for Health Agents and Boards of Health http://download.turi.org/HealthAgentToolkit/ The Toxics Use Reduction Institute can assist you in identifying chemical information and resources for safer salons. Call 978-934-3275. Their community website contains detailed presentations on hair and nail salon chemical safety, see http://www.turi. org/community/schools/HealthyCosmetology.shtml.