Be it simple cuticle care at home or getting creative manicures at the salon, pretty nails have always been popular.
However, a study published last month has cautioned against the use of ultraviolet nail polish dryers for gel manicures as it poses a long-term health risk.
UV nail lamps are primarily used on nail polish formulas or gels that require ultraviolet radiation to harden into polymers. The devices contain multiple bulbs which emit UV rays between 340 and 395 nm, which in turn activate the photo-initiators in the product. Nails and hands are exposed to the radiation for 10 minutes per session for gel manicures, with a change needed every two weeks.
In the US alone, at least 3 million people visit the salon a year, with each nail technician catering to 8 clients per day on average.
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The study reports a number of both melanoma and non-melanoma cases either on the nail or on the back of the hand after the use of the nail polish dryers, thought to be caused by UV radiation.
Conducted by researchers at the University of California San Diego, the study found that the UV light emitting from these devices leads to cell death and cancer-causing mutations in human cells.
“If you look at the way these devices are presented, they are marketed as safe, with nothing to be concerned about. But to the best of our knowledge, no one has actually studied these devices and how they affect human cells at the molecular and cellular levels until now,” Ludmil Alexandrov, a professor at UC San Diego, and study co-author said in a press release.
Dr. Alexandrov and his colleagues studied three different type of skin cells - human skin keratinocytes, human foreskin fibroblasts and mouse embryonic fibroblasts. The cells were placed under acute exposure and chronic exposure. They found that the devices used for 20-minute sessions led to 20% to 30% cell death while three consecutive 20-minute session caused 65% to 70% cell death. They also noticed mitochondrial and DNA damage in the remaining cells along with mutational patterns that are typically observed in skin cancer patients.
Speaking to the The Hindu, Dr. Aayush Gupta from Pune’s Dr. D. Y. Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, said, “Ultraviolet rays damage biological systems, including DNA, by breaking the bonds that hold important molecules together leading to the generation of free radicals, which causes damage to DNA, proteins, and other cellular contents and are ultimately responsible for the development of skin cancers.”
Explaining the harmful effects of the device, he said that as the UVA light used by the dryer has a longer wavelength, it penetrates deeper into the skin. This may culminate into photo-aging causing wrinkles, dark spots, loss of elasticity, large open pores and dilated blood vessels.
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, broadband UVA (315-400 nm) has been listed as a Group 1 carcinogen based on evidence for carcinogenicity in both humans and experimental models, the study noted.
Older studies along with the current one have repeatedly suggested that UV radiation from devices like gel nail polish dryer and tanning beds may increase the risk of early onset cancer.
Though currently the trend of gel manicures is not widespread in India, Dr Gupta said it may become popular in the future. “Things that get popular in the west (especially on TikTok and Instagram reels) have a way of ‘trending’ in India very soon. Also, this study was done on cells and not on real life patients. Even if the trend is popular in India already, it will take some years for the side effects to develop and eventually culminate into cancer,” he added.
The idea to study these salon devices struck Dr Alexandrov in a dentist’s office where he saw an article about a young beauty pageant contestant diagnosed with a rare form of skin cancer on her finger.
“I thought that was odd, so we began looking into it, and noticed a number of reports in medical journals saying that people who get gel manicures very frequently– like pageant contestants and estheticians–are reporting cases of very rare cancers in the fingers, suggesting that this may be something that causes this type of cancer,” said Dr Alexandrov.
