Another Nail In The Coffin

Published: August 28, 2007, 12:00 pm

I do not go to manicure shops for many reasons, chief among them that I’d rather spend the money on something I’ll enjoy. But I also don’t go for the same reason I don’t colour my hair. I don’t think all those chemicals can possibly be good for the environment or the people who work around them. Of course, I’m not a scientist, so what do I know, right? Thankfully, someone has finally kicked out some science to back me up. But to my surprise, it’s not only the acrylics that are implicated: it’s regular nail polish, too. Three compounds regularly used in nail salons — toluene (a colorless liquid used as a solvent), formaldehyde (helps harden nails) and dibutyl phthalate (a plasticizer that makes nail polish flexible) — are known to cause cancer or birth defects. I could write a long treatise on society’s beauty standards requiring poisons to be worn or ingested by women, but I won’t.

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