A recent study carried out at the universities of California San Diego and Pittburgh in the United States have revealed alarming evidence about the damage that the ultraviolet light (UV) emitted by nail polish drying lamps could cause to the hands of the person who this process is applied. Although the bulb of an LED nail polish dryer is less intense and has a different UV spectrum than a tanning bed, the few rays that the former gives off could easily penetrate the skin.
During the investigation entitled “DNA damage and somatic mutations in mammalian cells after irradiation with a nail polish dryer” -translated into Spanish and published in the journal Nature- alleges that UV radiation from nail lamps it can damage the DNA of human cells and mice in a similar way.
Within the arguments to the hypothesis of the research matter, it is explained that when Petri dishes with human and mouse cells were placed inside a nail polish dryer during two 20-minute sessions (separated by an hour of rest), about 20 to 30 percent of the cells died.
Likewise, cells remaining after the full exposure period showed signs of DNA damage and skin cancer-related mutations.
Meanwhile, one of Alexandrov’s lab members and first author of the aforementioned study, Maria Zhivagui, was so alarmed by the results that she decided to stop getting regular gel polish manicures.
“Once I saw the effect of the radiation emitted by the gel polish drying device on cell death and that it actually mutates cells even after just a 20-minute session, I was amazed,” Zhivagui said in an article. scientist at the University of California at San Diego.
Investigators have called for adequate long-term epidemiological studies to assess whether the mechanisms discovered by the test translate into actual harm.
