--- title: Nail Polish: How It Hurts Manicurists' Health description: Workers share stories of persistent coughs, miscarriages and cancer canonical: https://time.com/3851827/nail-polish-manicurists-health/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-08T15:42:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T07:03:24.802Z article:section: Health og:title: How Working With Nail Polish Hurts Manicurists' Health og:description: Workers share stories of persistent coughs, miscarriages and cancer og:url: https://time.com/3851827/nail-polish-manicurists-health/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Working With Nail Polish Hurts Manicurists' Health twitter:description: Workers share stories of persistent coughs, miscarriages and cancer twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How Working With Nail Polish Hurts Manicurists' Health by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley May 8, 2015 3:42 PM UTC by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley May 8, 2015 3:42 PM UTC Exposure to chemicals commonly found in nail polish and other manicure products [can pose serious health risks](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/11/nyregion/nail-salon-workers-in-nyc-face-hazardous-chemicals.html) to salon workers. In the second part of a series on the profession’s risks, the New York _Times_ says that workers frequently report health problems like persistent coughs, cancer, miscarriages and birth defects in their children. Several common chemicals pose an especially serious risk: formaldehyde, toluene and dibutyl phthalate, which is banned in the E.U. The cosmetics industry disputes the danger of these chemicals. Studies have found that sometimes even products that claim to be free of these ingredients contain them, based on random tests. While the levels of exposure may well be safe for women who get a weekly manicure, the risk is much higher for the workers who are exposed to them day in and day out, the _Times_ reports. [Read more at the New York _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/11/nyregion/nail-salon-workers-in-nyc-face-hazardous-chemicals.html). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3851827/nail-polish-manicurists-health/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3851827/nail-polish-manicurists-health/"},"headline":"How Working With Nail Polish Hurts Manicurists' Health","datePublished":"2015-05-08T15:42:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:03:24.802Z","description":"Workers share stories of persistent coughs, miscarriages and cancer","url":"https://time.com/3851827/nail-polish-manicurists-health/","keywords":["toxins","chemicals"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/toxins/","name":"toxins"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3851827/nail-polish-manicurists-health/","name":"How Working With Nail Polish Hurts Manicurists' Health"}}]}] ```