Perfect nails, damaged DNA

Cancer is all part of the service with the gel + UV dryer type of manicure.

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Finger- and toenails are a source of aesthetic pride and joy for many women, and increasingly men.  

Your Back Page scribbler, by contrast, must confess that her nails are more likely to look like they’ve been run over by a truck than to have that salon-fresh sparkle. A nail professional once took one look and asked if I was a nurse – such neglect must mean we were a Good person with a Serious job. We had to disappoint them.  

As for the type of long-lasting manicure that involves applying coloured gel to the nails in place of traditional polish, and then putting those nails under a UVA-emitting dryer to harden the gel’s oligomers into polymers, and then having some profoundly evil chemical applied to remove said gel in order to start the process over again – that is well beyond our level of commitment.  

So we were overjoyed to read that it probably gives you cancer and should go the way of the tanning bed. 

A study published in Nature, building on previous research finding that broadband UVA causes C:G>A:T mutations, used in vitro irradiation of human and mouse cells to evaluate the genotoxicity and cytotoxicity caused by UV nail dryers.  

The irradiated samples showed elevated levels of reactive oxygen species “consistent with 8-oxo-dG damage and mitochondrial dysfunction”, as well as a dose-dependent increase in C:G>A:T mutations.  

UV radiation, which was applied one, two or three times in durations up to 20 minutes, also resulted in lower cell viability and cell death (20-30% cell death after one 20-minute exposure), among other findings.  

The authors note the limitations of using cell lines, which don’t perfectly emulate mutagenesis in real skin and may bring their own mutations, and that this study doesn’t directly show UV nail dryers elevates cancer risk in humans.  

They conclude, however, that their results “demonstrate that UVA with wavelengths between 365 and 395nm, which is generally considered to be safe and is commonly used in a plethora of consumer products, causes DNA oxidative damage leading to C>A mutations”. Combined with previous studies, they “strongly suggest that radiation emitted by UV-nail polish dryers may cause cancers of the hand and that UV-nail polish dryers, similar to tanning beds, may increase the risk of early-onset skin cancer.” 

Put that in the “very silly ways to die” file.  

Run your nails down a blackboard if you want to get penny@medicalrepublic.com.au’s attention.