Occupational exposure to airborne solvents during nail sculpturing

This study describes occupational exposure to acrylates and other solvents during nail sculpturing, including comparative measurements of the exposure using four different sculpturing methods: The acrylic method, the UV-gel method, the acrylic powder method and the resin method. Thirty-two nail technicians working in 22 different salons participated in the study. In total, 92 measurements were performed, comprising 70 solvent measurements and 22 measurements of ethyl 2-cyanoacrylate. The solvents most frequently present in all samples were acetone, ethyl acetate, toluene and n-butyl acetate, measured in 96%, 94%, 91% and 81% of the samples, respectively. The study shows that the overall solvent exposure was low, with all measurements calculated as the additive effect (n = 70) below 20% of the OEL (arithmetic mean 0.06 and range 0.01-0.19). No statistically significant difference between sculpturing methods were observed (p = 0.05).