As I’m preparing for my first day at an internship with a newspaper company, I want my nails to be splashed with a fresh coat of polish. I decided on a sparkling blood red (I like to think that darker colors show more maturity). As I’m filling the room with the fumes of the polish, I came to the realization that I may be inhaling toxic chemicals!
Many nail polishes and even base and top coats contain chemicals, such as toluene, which is in gasoline, (ew!), formaldehyde and dibutyl phthalates. These big words might not mean much to you, but they can harm us!
Formaldehyde is a carcinogen, meaning it can cause cancer. Exposure to dibutyl phthalate can lead to reproductive and developmental effects including birth defects. Toluene has just about every symptom you can think of from dizziness, impaired speech, hearing and vision, and can even cause harmful effects to the liver and kidney.
While most polishes have labels, we have to be extra careful because some polishes may contain the harmful ingredients without a label!
I shifted through my collection of nail polishes, and I was stunned to have found these 4 that contain the 3 big toxic chemicals. I said my goodbyes to these colors, promising myself that I will be more careful in choosing nail polishes.
Chemicals are absorbed into the body tohurgh the nail surface. And the fumes from toluene (that model airplane glue smell) causes organ damage just from breathing it in. I myself am concerned about these toxins because some of my family members have genetically-increased chances for cancer and the doctors told us environmental exposures (food, stuff that comes into contact with our skin, and stuff we breathe in) increases the likelihood and/or growth rate of cancer. So, even though I don’t have that defective gene, I am too aware of how environmental exposures affect human bodies. Oh, how I wish I wasn’t concerned with this stuff! Oh, well. There is a good side to this, in that I’ve had a lot of fun making safe lotions and household cleaning solutions. Nail polish is my vice and even with that I am very careful to read the ingredients and select polishes to avoid the bad stuff.
Osvaldo,
That’s great that you’re concerned about keeping our bodies safe! May I ask how you make your own lotions and household cleaning solutions?