Salon Manicures Can Be Toxic for Your Health at Least They Are for the Workers

Thanks for posting this Jen. I would like to add that people should make sure the nail salon tools are sterilzed before they use them on their clients. I know a woman who recieved a pedicure from a nail salon. A week later she complained of headaches. At first she thought it was just high blood pressure, but when she went to the hospital the doctors discovered she had a severe case of Hepatitis. Unfortunately she did not survive and the family belives it was due to the salon tools not being sterilized.

I do my own nail care, however women need to read up on these things before heading to the salons so that they won't end up in situations such as these.

Ms. Jen you are completely correct in your assessment of nail salons, but can I ask a question, what states are you referring to? I can remember back in the late 80"s early 90" when I owned a salon in NY, I was hit hard by the government as far my salon was concerned. I had to create a ventilation area within 2 ft of all chemicals. The fire department and health dept. inspected my shop. I had to incorporate proper sanitary implementation at each station for combs, brushes etc. The barbers had to have germacide sprayed on their clippers after each cut and sweep after each haircut, so there would be no inhalation of airborne hair. You had to discard any tools that couldn't be properly sanitized etc. and first and foremost you had to acquire a min of one hundred thousand in insurance for your shop and list each and every product and its ingredients on your insurance claim.
Maybe they should take into account that its a combination of the shops, insurance agency and the distributors or makers of certain products should be checked out because they won't comply.
I was very sensitive to products and if it bothered me than it wasn't used. We've come a long way, but yet have a long way to go. I must say,
I also do my own nails and pedicures because I had an unsanitary situation at a salon almost 2 years ago and being that I closed my salon 10 years ago I had to result to doing them myself. Its a shame if this is happening.

@ Sister Anita
The state in question is California.

@ Sister Siebra,
How unfortunate for the person who contracted hepatitis. Yes we do have to be careful when it comes to things like having our nails manicured. I used to get have my nails manicured years ago, but during that time I worked on a cardiac surgical floor with post open heart patients and my mgr asked us not to wear acrylic nails because of the risk of bacteria carrying capacity and transferring "bugs" to the chest incision site's of the patients.

Since that time, I just got use to not having my nails done. Besides, it's just not convenient having salon nails and having to constantly put on and off gloves not to mention all the hand washing. Uggh!

Sister Jen I agree. No one would guess that I used to be a chronic nail biter as a child and my mom used to pour hot sauce on my hands to keep me from biting them so often (LOL)! It wasn't until I entered high school and grew tired of throwing my money away that I decided to grow my own nails. Now even though i have to keep them trimmed in order to type faster everyone tells me how beutiful my nails are.

Hmmh ~~ hotsauce on nails as a deterent for nail biting~~ now that's a new one for me. Did it work? Lol

No sister, I guess the sauce wasn't hot enough (LOL)!