Your Nail Polish Could Be Disrupting Your Hormone System

[niyad]

Your Nail Polish Could Be Disrupting Your Hormone System


As my 10-year old daughter handed me her sleeping bag and pillow after the spa party, I noticed that her nails were decorated with multi-colored stickers. She said that she knew I worked in environmental health and wouldn’t want her to get her nails painted.



I cringed but simultaneously rejoiced. I had officially become “that mom”—the one whose kid passed on nail polish because it might be toxic. I was especially relieved when I saw the latest report from the Environmental Working Group (EWG), the nonprofit research and advocacy organization where I am executive director.

That report, called “Nailed: Endocrine Disruptor in Nail Polish Gets in Women’s Bodies,” reaffirmed my daughter’s choice to skip nail polish. It recounted the results of a scientific study co-authored by researcher Heather Stapleton of Duke University and EWG toxicologist Johanna Congleton that found that a chemical added to nail polish to make it more flexible and chip-resistant got into the bodies of all 26 women who volunteered to paint their nails for the study. The evidence showed up in their urine within half a day.

These findings could have serious implications for nail polish users, especially for children, ‘tweens and teens. Scientists suspect that the chemical at issue—triphenyl phosphate, or TPHP—disrupts the hormone system. Researchers have linked hormone disruptors such as TPHP to early onset of puberty, neurodevelopmental problems and obesity. The last thing girls need in their bodies as they are developing rapidly is something that may play havoc with their hormones. What’s worse, nail art is all the rage among the vulnerable age group. The nail industry estimates that nine out of 10 girls between the ages 12 and 14 use nail products, sometimes daily.

These girls are likely to have been exposed to TPHP from multiple sources over years. It is often used as a fire retardant infused into foam furniture. From furniture, it and other fire retardant chemicals migrate into household dust, and from there, into people—especially children. EWG biomonitoring tests conducted in 2008 discovered that babies and toddlers, who play on the floor, typically had triple the amounts of fire retardant chemicals in their bodies as their mothers. A 2014 study by Duke and EWG found that children’s exposure to TPHP was on average nearly three times that of adults. Evidence of the chemical was found in all 26 children tested in the 2014 study.

. . . .

http://msmagazine.com/blog/2015/10/21/your-nail-polish-could-be-disrupting-your-hormone-system/

[Peregrine Took]

1. The older I get the more I eschew makeup as much as I can.

Thanks for posting.

[niyad]

2. have not been able to wear any for decades. apparently that is a very good thing.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. WTF is that doing in nail polish ?

Potential Acute Health Effects:
Hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant, permeator), of eye contact (irritant), of ingestion,
of inhalation.
Potential Chronic Health Effects:
CARCINOGENIC EFFECTS: A4 (Not classifiable for human or animal.) by ACGIH. MUTAGENIC EFFECTS: Not available.
TERATOGENIC EFFECTS: Not available. DEVELOPMENTAL TOXICITY: Not available. Repeated or prolonged exposure is
not known to aggravate medical condition.

(from MSDS)

I'd handle this in the lab in a hood, wearing gloves. Toxicity is mostly untested ??

[niyad]

4. and that pretty much tells you how much these industries care about women, doesn't it?

[jmowreader]

5. It makes it "flexible" and "chip resistant," and does neither

Nail polish as we know it is old-school car paint. It was "invented" when Ford started painting cars red. Cars back then were painted with nitrocellulose lacquer. One of the Ford executives was talking to his wife about how quickly the new red car paint dried. She asked him to bring some home, then all her friends asked him to bring some home, and finally the executive's wife realized women everywhere would buy it so she ordered a barrel of car paint and a truckload of little bottles...and the rest is history.

There are two problems with this lacquer, one for the maker and one for the wearer. The problem for the manufacturer is, in bulk, this stuff is an explosive. (Use Google Maps to find "OPI Products, North Hollywood, CA" and switch into Street View. The building they make nail polish in is designed to direct the force of a blast upward.) Most companies buy raw lacquer and add colorants and fortifiers to it because it's cheaper to buy a tote of paint than an explosives factory...and as with most chemicals, this paint comes from China.

The problem for the wearer is nitrocellulose lacquer is brittle unless it's modified. The cheap crap uses these chemicals, which don't work well. High-end polish like OPI uses polyester...which, if it's an endocrine disruptor, means we're all screwed because it's a popular food packaging material.

If you like polished nails, download the MSDS for any product you might want to use...and quit buying that three-dollar polish.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Why continue to use nitrocellulose ? It has been phased out of almost every other application.

Used to be used to make billiard balls, film stock (lots of films burned up or decayed as a result), and "mother-in-law silk" (extra flammable fabric, banned). The much safer, and comparably inexpensive, cellulose acetate has replaced it in almost all applications.

It's still used in plastic explosives, because, hey, you need nitro-something for it to explode !

A Google search suggests that the very similar polymer, cellulose acetate butyrate, is sometimes used instead of nitrocellulose. Don't know why is hasn't replaced it completely. May be nothing more than institutional inertia.

ETA: Cellulose acetate butyrate apparently has some problems adhering to some lacquers. This appears to cause problems for people who apply a base coat, a lacquer, and a top coat to their nails. I had no idea this was a thing.

[jmowreader]

7. IIRC they use nitrocellulose because it's harder, shinier and less allergenic

Ping-pong balls are still nitrocellulose.

BTW have you read the letter from a saloonkeeper to a billiard ball manufacturer after his first shipment of celluloid balls came in? He claimed that a hard shot would cause the balls to explode, which wouldn't have been a problem if his customers didn't all draw their guns when it happened.

[eppur_se_muova]

8. Never mind the hazard and environmental costs, obviously.

Apparently NC is *not* used in billiards anymore, and hasn't been for some time:

The exacting requirements of the billiard ball are met today with balls cast from plastic materials that are strongly resistant to cracking and chipping. Currently Saluc, under the brand names Aramith[6] and Brunswick Centennial,[7] manufactures phenolic resin balls. Other plastics and resins such as polyester (under various trade names) and clear acrylic are also used, by competing companies such as Elephant Balls Ltd.[8] and Frenzy Sports.[9]

Ivory balls remained in use in artistic billiards competition until the late 20th century.[2]:17

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billiard_ball#History

Just had to get the name of that company in there.

[flamingdem]

9. There are less toxic versions around nt