Skin cancer warning over nail bar UV dryer lamps

ULTRAVIOLET lamps in high street nail bars could pose a skin cancer risk, fear scientists.

The lamps, which help to harden some types of nail polish gel called shellac, may damage skin in a similar way to sunbeds, say researchers at the University of California San Diego and University of Pittsburgh.

In studies they found a high proportion of skin cells repeatedly exposed to the light from these lamps died. Cells that did survive showed signs of damage, including to DNA, which can increase the risk of skin cancer.

Writing in the journal Nature Communications, the study authors warned: ‘Our experimental results … suggest radiation emitted by UV nail polish dryers may cause cancers of the hand.’

However, they cautioned that the study ‘does not provide direct evidence for an increased cancer risk in humans’.

There has been growing anxiety over nail bars. US influencer Kourtney Kardashian has said she does not use UV driers because they ‘can age the skin with brown spots’.

Last night the nail bar industry poured scorn on the findings. Doug Schoon, of the US Nail Manufacturing Council, said the researchers used a very highpowered UV lamp and exposed cultured skin cells for too long – 20 minutes a day for three consecutive days.

He added customers typically hold a hand under a lamp for three minutes in two sessions a month, saying: ‘It appears their agenda is to make all UV nail lamps look dangerous.’

One reason it is unlikely nail bar UV lamps may carry the same risk as sunbeds is because light they produce is different.

Sunbeds emit UVB, the main cause of sunburn, but which does not penetrate below the top of the skin, and UVA, which penetrates deeper. Nail bar lamps tend to produce only UVA.