Since hitting the market around 2010, gel manicures have become a staple at nail salons across the US and in many parts of the world, and it’s easy to see why. Compared to traditional nail polish, gel variants are more resistant to damage and smudges, and retain their shine until the nail polish is removed. Best of all, if you’re impatient, you don’t need to wait an hour or more for a gel manicure to dry. All of those benefits come courtesy of the way enamel is cured. Instead of waiting for a gel polish to dry naturally, she places her hands under an ultraviolet light, which activates the chemicals within the gel and causes it to harden.
While the dangers of ultraviolet light, particularly in tanning environments, are well known, prior to this week, scientists had not studied how the ultraviolet lights used to cure gel polishes might affect human skin. You may think that what we know about tanning beds applies here, but the devices used by nail salons emit a different spectrum of ultraviolet light. A group of researchers from the she decided to study the devices after reading an article about a beauty pageant contestant who was diagnosed with a rare form of skin cancer.
Using different combinations of human and mouse cells, the researchers found that a single 20-minute session with an ultraviolet nail polish dryer caused the death of up to 30 percent of the cells in a petri dish. Three consecutive 20-minute sessions saw 65 to 70 percent of the exposed cells die. Among the remaining cells, the researchers saw evidence of mitochondrial and DNA damage, as well as mutations that have been seen in skin cancer patients.
“Our experimental results and previous evidence strongly suggest that the radiation emitted by UV nail polish dryers may cause hand cancer and that UV nail polish dryers, similar to tanning beds, may increase the risk of cancer. early onset skin. the researchers write in a study published in the journal on Tuesday. They caution that a longer epidemiological study is needed before they can say conclusively that the use of UV drying devices leads to an increased risk of skin cancer, adding that “it is likely that such studies will take at least a decade to determine.” be completed and then reported to the public.” general public.”
You may think the advice here is to avoid UV dryers, but it’s not that simple. Gel manicures have become an industry standard for a reason. For many people, regular nail polish starts to flake off after a day or so, making a traditional manicure often not worth the time, money, or effort.
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