Using UV Lights to Dry Nails May Increase Risk of Skin Cancer

Thanks for your well thought out comments. Sounds like using sunscreen on one's hands would not be so helpful for reasons you explained, but I the point you made that putting on the UV light on made you feel like you wanted to leave the room is interesting. Perhaps that is our body's subtle way of saying that being near these lights is not such a great idea. Light does not just shine on what it is pointed at so those who spend their days working around them may also be exposing themselves to extra UV light.

Further to my post, above, I just wanted to add that I can't see how applying sunblock an hour before an appointment would be adequate protection? As the manicurist will, normally, have to soak-off the old gel nails and then handle the client's hands fairly extensively during the process of filing the nails and applying the new gels, so I would imagine that most of the sunblock would be removed, or largely rubbed off, by all of that?

As I say, I think it would make more sense to apply it after the new nail gels were applied, but before they were put under the lamp, but the problem would then be that; a) sufficient time would not have elapsed for the sunblock to work properly and b) that it would be virtually impossible to apply it right up to the nail edge (or even close), without compromising the integrity of the gel in some way.

So, without some sort of dramatic new development in sunblocks, or UV lights, or the gel nail process itself, I can't really see a logical way around the problem, to be honest?

BTW, I meant to write extensions, not 'extentions' in my previous comment, obviously - sorry about that! :)

Very interesting post - thank you.

A few years ago, I enrolled on a professional home training course in gel nail extentions. At the time, I was vaguely considering a career in it; but, really, as a very curious person and a perfectionist, I was mainly interested in learning how exactly it was done and quite fancied the idea of being able to do my own nails and perhaps, also, those of my friends.

When it all arrived, I began the course, but never bothered sending in my results (which were perfectly adequate, BTW!) to be assessed, due to my worries about the UV lamp.

Even when using it on the dummy hand (I never used it on myself, thank God!), the light was so bright that I had an instinctive desire to leave the room, until the process was completed.

Not only did I lose interest in learning how to do gel nails myself, I have also never had them applied by anyone else (despite wanting to!), due to the glaring UV light, which I just felt could not be good.

It did occur to me that sunblock could be applied, but imagine trying to apply it sufficiently thoroughly, without disturbing, or contaminating, the freshly applied, still-soft nail gels?

Recently UV nail lamps have come into question by sensationalized TV programs. While the question is a valid one, the fact remains some of the answers are presented without much research into the facts.

Let’s get this out of the way right now. Nearly everything can be linked to cancer in one way or another.

For example I could say with true authority that vegetables have been linked to cancer. I can pull a poll of cancer victims and ask them if, in the 6 months before they were diagnosed with cancer, had they eaten any vegetables. Nearly universally the answer would be yes. Obviously that would be a coincidence.

Sometimes that is the way media works. They will take some kind of obscure fact, manipulate the data and come up the conclusion they think will cause the most people to tune in.

Most of the questions about UV nail lamps and cancer were brought on by an observation printed by the American Medical Association stating that two people who had skin cancer had also been exposed to a UV nail lamp. There were several inaccuracies in the article that any nail technician would have been able to clear up. The media decided to run with the story without talking to industry experts. Everyone knows that overexposure to the Sun’s UV rays has been linked to skin cancer.

I also believe that everyone knows that a UV lamp generates UV rays. It’s naïve to think that there is no possibility of skin cancer from a UV lamp.

However let’s look at the realities of a UV lamp designed for nails. The output of a UV nail lamp is so small it is nearly comparable to sunlight.

Recently a study was done by an independent laboratory. The study found that using a common nail UV lamp the total exposure of UVA was about equal to 2.7 minutes of sun exposure on your hands per day between 2 week appointments. For UVB it was 27 seconds.

Now let’s compare a UV nail lamp to a tanning bed. The most common UV nail lamps have four 9 watt bulbs for a total energy usage of 36 watts. A conservative commercial tanning bed can have 28 bulbs at 100 watts each or a total of 2800 watts. A tanning bed is many times more intense then the sun, that is why you don’t need to sit in a tanning bed for an hour to get a tan. I have never heard of anyone getting a tan or sunburn from normal UV nail lamp exposure.

So can a UV lamp designed for nails cause skin cancer? Yes it probably can, if you sleep with it every night turned on strapped to your hand. Or walk around all day with it turned on strapped your feet like shoes. But if you did that people would think you were pretty weird.

But the more important question is will it cause skin cancer? Probably not. There is no question that it will add to your total exposure to UV. 2.7 minutes per day to be exact. But if you want to minimize your risk for skin cancer it would be much more important to wear a hat and sunscreen, do not sun bathe, and generally limit your exposure to the sun especially near water, snow or on cloudy days. These tips are infinitely more important than skipping your 10 minutes of exposure in a nail UV lamp every two to four weeks. If you are still concerned, the answer is simple. Just apply a sunblock to your hands containing zinc oxide 1 hour before your nail appointment.
Erick Westcott, CEO Gelousy Gel Nail Systems
(Link removed by EmpowHER Moderator.)

Thank you for your comment. I have never used nail UV lights or a tanning bed but if you read the information from the article I cited they did this calculation
"Most home tanning beds have 12 to 28 bulbs producing 100 W per bulb, and salon beds have 24 to 60 bulbs producing 100
to 200Wper bulb. Most tanning beds can produce 1200 W of power or more, depending on the model. When correcting
for body surface area (100% body surface area while
using a tanning bed and 2% body surface area with a nail
lamp), the amount of UV radiation per meter squared is
approximately comparable, unless one is using a super tanning
bed with 60 lamps putting out 200 W per bulb."

I think what is important is not that we need to worry UV nail lights cause cancer but that it is an area of UV exposure we typically don't think of.

One could argue that UV lamps act like mini-tanning beds, but the amount of UV output and the time of exposure during a nail service is much, much lower than a tanning bed. Basically, there is no difference between taking a short walk outside in the sun (without gloves) than using a UV lamp during a nail service. If people are still concerned, they can always slap a little sunscreen on.

Jessie Burkhardt
Director of Marketing & Communications for NSI
(Link removed by EmpowHER Moderator)