by NOEMI LOPINTO

Employees in many Montreal nail salons may be working themselves sick. Some manicure salons are using an adhesive known as methyl methacrylate (MMA), which will soon be on Health Canada’s “hot list” of toxic chemicals. It has been linked to fetal deformations and miscarriages, kidney, liver, lung and heart disease as well as a host of other dermatological side effects. There is, however, no law against MMA use in Canada.

MMA is a chemical used to make and line dentures, and prosthetic laboratories use it for constructing or repairing prostheses. It is also used, in liquid or powder form, to create fake nails. Nails made with MMA are very cheap and extremely difficult to remove. If the odour in the salon you visit is extremely strong and fruity-smelling, the nail technicians are all wearing masks and using dental drills (actually used to apply fake nails), then chances are the shop is using MMA.

In the 1970s, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) received numerous complaints of serious nail damage or loss, contact dermatitis and organ damage from long-term exposure to MMA. In 1972, the FDA deemed it a “poisonous and deleterious” substance and got a court-ordered injunction prohibiting a particular nail product manufacturer from selling it. They seized MMA products from several manufacturers and asked others to recall it. However, the FDA did not ban it outright. An alternative called ethyl methacrylate (EMA) exists - but at six times the price.

In Canada, there is nothing to prevent a salon owner or a cosmetics distributor from buying products containing MMA. Despite the fact that there appears to be widespread use, Health Canada representative Margot Geguld says they have no records of its purchase by anyone in their cosmetic database.

“No one has notified us that they bought anything with that ingredient,” says Geguld. “There is an alternative, EMA. People should be buying that. Health Canada has never been advised of these ingredients being used here, so if they are being used, it is without our notification.”

Cheap and dangerous

The bond of MMA to the soft tissue of the nail is so strong that even a slight trauma can cause it to separate and lift off the finger. MMA can also be absorbed through even unbroken skin, do permanent damage to the nail’s molecular structure and be further absorbed into the body. It can cause infection and foster the growth of nasty fungi. But it’s cheap and it’s fast: the cost of a gallon of MMA liquid monomer ranges from $9 to $22 (U.S.). The cost of EMA liquid monomer ranges from $219 to $239 (U.S.) per gallon, and takes longer to apply. With the surge in salon growth in the past five years, many owners are buying MMA in bulk from American or Asian distributors.

I went to get my nails done three times at three different salons in the past week. Based on the smell and the type of equipment used, each salon I visited appeared to be using MMA. At salons on Parc, St-Laurent and Mont-Royal, groups of three to five (predominantly) Asian women sat at small white tables, surrounded by nail files, drills and products in small white bottles. The sculpting process goes as follows: the technician takes a large brown paintbrush, dips it into a clear liquid and then dips the wet brush into a small bottle filled with pink powder. The liquid monomer and the powder make a warm, wet plastic lump which the technician carefully shapes into a nail onto a plastic nail extension, which has been glued to your finger. When cured, the acrylic is filed and multiple layers of nail polish are applied as a topcoat. The technicians wear small paper masks over their mouths, but their hands and faces are liberally covered with white powder from filing clients’ acrylic nails. Some salons have a small ventilator whirring at the center of the table, but I did not notice its effectiveness. The stuff really stinks.

A full manicure cost me about $35, a very bad sign, says France Lecuyer, of Distribution France Lecuyer, which sells the gels, powders, resins, acrylics, nail files and acetones that are the required tool kit of any nail technician.

“If it’s fast and cheap, something’s wrong,” says Lecuyer. “A manicure should never take less than an hour-and-a-half, and should never cost less than 60 bucks. This business has seen enormous growth, and there is no law against MMA. I could buy it too if I wanted to. But I would never sell that stuff to my clients. It’s very dangerous, and there is a lot of it out there. The nail technicians of the ’70s - I saw some women develop terrible illnesses.”

Close quarters

Workers apply sculpted nails at very close quarters in order to see the nail properly, usually with their head less than a foot from the client’s hand. They inhale vapours and dust when the nails are being shaped by file or dental drill. Containers of liquid and powdered MMA are left open under their noses. Other chemicals used in nail-sculpting include nail polish, polish remover, acrylic primer, enamel undercoat and topcoats. These may contain solvents such as toluene, isopropryl alcohol, ethyl and butyl acetates, acetone and other ketones. Nail technicians complain of skin rashes, irritation of eyes, nose and throat, drowsiness, dizzy spells, hand-trembling, headaches, decreased sensations of fingers, as well as numbing, prickling, coldness and sometimes pain.

Three weeks ago, Serge Coallier opened Manucure Mont-Royal on the Plateau. He buys his products from companies like OPI, EZ-flow and France Lecuyer - all MMA-free. He says clients should beware of the unlabelled bottle. “People buy their products in bulk from the USA or from Asia,” says Coallier. “It’s incredibly cheap. And then they fill their bottles with MMA. Even if it’s labelled OPI, it might not be safe. I am in this business for fun, but someone who has a lot of bills to pay has to stay competitive. It’s unbelievable what goes on in this business, and no one will talk. I called around, just looking for information to open up a business, and no one would tell me where they bought their products.”

Spiralling health costs

At the price of their health, salaried nail technicians can earn anything from minimum wage to $10 an hour. They may work for themselves or rent a table at a salon. Many are what Nicole Trachy, spokesperson for poverty advocate group Au bas de l’échelle, calls “false autonomous workers.”

“What we find most often is the owner will tell the employee that she is an autonomous worker, but he will tell her when to work and how long,” says Trachy. “She will not have paid holidays, no vacations. He will buy the products she uses and may demand a commission. It’s complete subordination, with no social protection.”

“Kim” works with his wife at a nail salon on Parc. He says the smell used to make him sick when he worked at a larger salon. “All those girls, all the clients make a real bad smell, “ says Kim. “I hated the work, in the beginning. I had terrible headaches. But you have to work, to pay the bills. It’s not a business you’re supposed to stay at for a long time.” :