Determinants of Exposures to Hazardous Materials among Nail Cosmeticians in the Kampala City, Uganda.

Globally, nail salons represent a fast expanding industry and often with low-income cosmeticians. In general, cosmeticians have limited access to safety information about the hazardous materials they handle, which would potentially enable them to minimize workplace exposures. The problem is much pronounced in low- and middle-income countries due to weaknesses in regulation of the industry. We investigated determinants of exposures to hazardous materials among nail cosmeticians in Kampala District, Uganda. We employed a cross-sectional study design among a random sample of 243 participants. The sociodemographic characteristics, education and training status, knowledge about routes of exposure to hazardous chemicals, and personal protective material use of cosmeticians were assessed through face-to-face interviews. Most cosmeticians were aged 18-34 years, and more males were engaged in this work than females. Also, 82.7% believed inhalation was the major exposure route for the chemicals they handled. Participants who had attained secondary-level education and above were over three times more likely to wear masks (AOR = 3.19, 95% CI 1.58-6.41) and gloves (AOR = 3.48, 95% CI 1.55-7.81) and over two times more likely to use aprons (AOR = 2.50, 95% CI 1.18-5.32). Participants who had ever received safety training on hazardous chemicals were more likely to wear all four personal protective equipment: masks (AOR = 3.21, 95% CI 1.61-6.42), gloves (AOR = 4.23, 95% CI 2.05-8.75), goggles (AOR = 4.14, 95% CI 1.25-13.65), and aprons (AOR = 2.73, 95% CI 1.25-5.96). Participants who had spent more than two years in the nail cosmetics business were more likely to wear masks (AOR = 3.37, 95% CI 1.64-6.95). With the increasing demand for nail cosmetics, and many people in urban areas of low-income countries engaging in this industry, there is need for training and better workplace policies to promote a healthier urban workforce dealing in cosmetics.

Evaluating an owner-to-worker training intervention in California nail salons using personal air monitoring.

BACKGROUND: Chemicals in nail products have been linked to numerous health concerns. METHODS: We recruited Vietnamese-American nail salon owners and workers in California and randomized salons into an intervention or control group. Owners in the intervention group received training and then provided education to workers in their salons on best practices to reduce workplace chemical exposures. Methyl methacrylate (MMA), toluene, and total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) were measured using personal air monitors worn by workers during the work-shift. RESULTS: We enrolled 77 salons (37 intervention and 40 control) and 200 workers. There was no significant intervention effect between the two groups. However, MMA and TVOCs were higher for workers who used gel polish and acrylic nails as well as in busy salons. CONCLUSIONS: Although the intervention did not show reductions in chemical levels, identifying worker tasks and salon characteristics that predict chemical levels can inform future interventions to reduce exposures.

Assessing Acute Symptoms Related to Occupational Exposures Among Nail Salon Technicians.

OBJECTIVE: This cross-sectional field study evaluated potential associations between acute symptoms among nail technicians and exposure of chemical hazards in New Jersey salons. METHODS: In 2016, an in-person safety and health survey was conducted. Data were gathered on symptoms, demographics, work history, tobacco use, area and/or task ventilation, use of personal protective equipment, and safety training. Workplace hazards were identified by observational survey during site visit walk-throughs. RESULTS: Of the 68 respondents from 40 participating salons whose owners agreed to participate (35% salon-level participation), most were Asian females with a self-reported history of work-associated eye, nose, throat, and skin symptoms. Few workers used personal protective equipment. Most workers had not received training in their primary language. CONCLUSIONS: Nail salon workers need comprehensive chemical use training. More research is needed to determine extent of exposure.

Incidence of skin and respiratory diseases among Danish hairdressing apprentices.

BACKGROUND: Hairdressing is one of the professions with the highest risk of occupational skin and respiratory diseases. The incidence of these diseases in hairdressing apprentices has been studied only sparsely. OBJECTIVE: To determine the incidence of skin and respiratory diseases in hairdressing apprentices, and to explore whether hairdressing apprentices leave the trade during training because of these diseases. METHODS: A 3-year follow-up questionnaire study was conducted among 248 hairdressing apprentices and a control group comprising 816 young adults from the general population. RESULTS: The incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for contact urticaria (IRR 4.7, 95%CI: 2.6-8.6), hand eczema (IRR 1.7, 95%CI: 1.1-2.6) and rhinitis symptoms (IRR 1.6, 95%CI: 1.2-2.2) were significantly increased in the hairdressing apprentices, whereas wheezing was similar between groups. During the follow-up period, 21.8% of the hairdressing apprentices had left the trade, and 70.3% of these had left because of health complaints. The most frequently reported reasons for leaving were musculoskeletal pain (47.4%) and skin diseases (47.4%), followed by respiratory symptoms (23.7%). CONCLUSIONS: Hairdressing apprentices are at increased risk for contact urticaria, hand eczema and rhinitis symptoms compared with the general population, and a substantial proportion leave the trade because of these diseases, causing a 'healthy worker survivor effect.'

[Manicure and pedicure in the city of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso): practices and risks]. / La manucure et la pédicure dans la ville de Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso): pratiques et risqué.

Pedicure-manicure represents the aesthetic care of hands, feet and nails. In Burkina Faso, the use of manicure-pedicure products, the techniques used and the level of risk remain unknown. The aim of our study was to evaluate the practice of manicure-pedicure in the city of Ouagadougou. We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study of all practitioners with at least six months experience in aesthetic care and customers present at the time of the survey from December 2010 to November 2012. We interviewed a total of 313 practitioners and 313 clients. The average age of practitioners was 19 years and of customers was 32.2 years. Fixed location practitioners were mostly women (96.87%) while mobile practitioners were mostly men (68.37%); 64.53% of customers were women. The percentage of practitioners who did not receive professional training was 93.92%. 29.7% of practitioners soaked the instruments in javel water for at least ten minutes; 75.71% knew that the use of certain tools was dangerous and 26.51% had side effects. 40.25% of customers knew that the used equipment may pose some risks and 30.35% were victims of accidents. The manicure and pedicure is done in hair salons by untrained hairdressers to the professional practice. The origin and composition of the products is not known. Not recommended products are used (foot soak shampoo, razor blade and scissors for feet scraping). The use of manicure and/or pedicure is sometimes necessary but that should not obscure the risks to which it exposes customers. Customers education and practitioners training seem necessary to minimize risks.

Occupational skin diseases in hairdressing apprentices - has anything changed?

BACKGROUND: Hairdressers are at risk for occupational skin diseases. Since 2008, an educational programme has been conducted in Danish hairdressing schools to prevent occupational skin diseases. Its effect is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To examine the current frequency of self-reported hand eczema and contact urticaria in Danish hairdressing apprentices as compared with controls, and to determine the occurrence of hand eczema and contact urticaria in hairdressing apprentices with different durations of exposure to the trade. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional, web-based questionnaire study conducted among 504 hairdressing apprentices and a control group of 1400 adolescents from the general population. RESULTS: Hand eczema was significantly more prevalent in the hairdressing apprentices than in controls (34.5% versus 18.8%, p < 0.001). The incidence rate of hand eczema among hairdressing apprentices was 98 cases/1000 person-years. Contact urticaria was also more prevalent in the hairdressing apprentices (7.3% versus 4.2%, p = 0.006). Both diseases increased with increasing duration of exposure to the trade. CONCLUSION: Despite educational efforts to prevent occupational skin diseases in the hairdressing schools, Danish apprentices are still at increased risk for hand eczema and contact urticaria. Both diseases develop after only a few years of work in hairdressing. Further preventive strategies are warranted.

Fat, desire and disgust in the colonial imagination.

This article tracks the relatively unexamined ways in which ethnographic, travel and medical knowledge interrelated in the construction of fat stereotypes in the nineteenth century, often plotted along a temporal curve from 'primitive' corpulence to 'civilized' moderation. By showing how the complementary insights of medicine and ethnography circulated in beauty manuals, weight-loss guides and popular ethnographic books ­ all of which were aimed at middle-class readers and thus crystallize certain bourgeois attitudes of the time ­ it argues that the pronounced denigration of fat that emerged in Britain and France by the early twentieth century acquired some of its edge through this ongoing tendency to depict desire for and acceptance of fat as fundamentally 'savage' or 'uncivilized' traits. This tension between fat and 'civilization' was by no means univocal or stable. Rather, this analysis shows, a complex and wide-ranging series of similarities and differences, identifications and refusals can be traced between British and French perceptions of their own bodies and desires and the shortcomings they saw in foreign cultures. It sheds light as well on those aspects of their own societies that seemed 'primitive' in ways that bore an uncomfortable similarity to the colonial peoples they governed, demonstrating how a gendered, yet ultimately unstable, double standard was sustained for much of the nineteenth century. Finally it reveals a subtle and persistent racial subtext to the anti-fat discourses that would become more aggressive in the twentieth century and which are ubiquitous today.

The making and transnationalization of an ethnic niche: Vietnamese manicurists.

The article addresses how Vietnamese immigrant women developed an urban employment niche in the beauty industry, in manicuring. They are shown to have done so by creating a market for professional nail care, through the transformation of nailwork into what might be called McNails, entailing inexpensive, walk-in, impersonal service, in stand-alone salons, nationwide, and by making manicures and pedicures de riguer across class and racial strata. Vietnamese are shown to have simultaneously gained access to institutional means to surmount professional manicure credentializing barriers, and to have developed formal and informal ethnic networks that fueled their growing monopolization of jobs in the sector, to the exclusion of non-Vietnamese. The article also elucidates conditions contributing to the Vietnamese build-up and transformation of the niche, to the nation-wide formation of the niche and, most recently, to the transnationalization of the niche. It also extrapolates from the Vietnamese manicure experience propositions concerning the development, expansion, maintenance, and transnationalization of immigrant-formed labor market niches.

Compliance with age and skin type restrictions following the introduction of indoor tanning legislation in Melbourne, Australia.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: The study aimed to establish compliance of indoor tanning businesses with 2009 legislation, particularly with requirements to provide information on skin cancer and exclude people under 18 or with fair skin. METHODS: Compliance was tested through surveys and in-person visits to 30 businesses in Melbourne, Australia. Research assistants presented as potential customers with different profiles: young adults eligible to use a sunbed, young adults with fair skin, under age customers who prompted with their age and under age customers who concealed their age and claimed to be 18 if asked. RESULTS: Communicating the risks of skin cancer during the visit improved from 70% in 2003, prior to the introduction of legislation, to 97% in 2009. While there were improvements in restricting access to sunbeds among high-risk groups, compliance of indoor tanning businesses with age and skin type restrictions remained less than optimal. Almost half (47%) allowed access to fair-skinned research assistants, compared with 90% in 2003. Only one of the 30 operators allowed access to a teenager who prompted with her age; in 2003, 52% of under age teenagers were granted access without parental consent. However, when teenagers concealed their age or claimed to be 18, 80% of operators granted them access. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that regulation of the indoor tanning industry is a better approach to this health issue than voluntary standards and/or education. Nonetheless, inadequate compliance with requirements to exclude high-risk groups lends weight to calls for stricter monitoring and enforcement, or an absolute ban.

Disordered eating in African American and Caucasian women: the role of ethnic identity.

The influential roles of culture and ethnic identity are frequently cited in developing disordered eating and body dissatisfaction, constituting both protective and risk factors. For African American women, strongly identifying with African American cultural beauty ideals may protect against disordered eating to lose weight, but may actually increase risk in development of disordered eating directed at weight gain, such as binge eating. This study compares African American and Caucasian women on disordered eating measures, positing that African American women show greater risk for binge eating due to the impact of ethnic identity on body dissatisfaction. Findings indicate low levels of ethnic identity represent a risk factor for African American women, increasing the likelihood of showing greater binge eating and bulimic pathology. In Caucasian women, high levels of ethnic identity constitute a risk factor, leading to higher levels of both binge eating and global eating pathology. Implications for prevention and treatment are discussed.

Seeing your way to health: the visual pedagogy of Bess Mensendieck's physical culture system.

This essay examines the images and looking practices central to Bess M. Mensendieck's (c.1866-1959) 'functional exercise' system, as documented in physical culture treatises published in Germany and the United States between 1906 and 1937. Believing that muscular realignment could not occur without seeing how the body worked, Mensendieck taught adult non-athletes to see skeletal alignment and muscular movement in their own and others' bodies. Three levels of looking practices are examined: didactic sequences; penetrating inspection and appreciation of physiological structures; and ideokinetic visual metaphors for guiding movement. With these techniques, Mensendieck's work bridged the body cultures of German Nacktkultur (nudism), American labour efficiency and the emerging physical education profession. This case study demonstrates how sport historians could expand their analyses to include practices of looking as well as questions of visual representation.

The making of a modern female body: beauty, health and fitness in interwar Britain.

In interwar Britain female athleticism, keep-fit classes and physical culture were celebrated as emblems of modernity, and women who cultivated their bodies in the pursuit of beauty, health and fitness represented civic virtue. This article argues that a modern, actively managed female body was part of women's liberation during this period. A modern female body required sex reform and birth control. Fitness culture was circumscribed by traditional notions of femininity. Women's competitive sport remained controversial and slimming in pursuit of fashion was widely condemned. Women from across the social spectrum embraced sport and joined fitness organizations. The rise of a modern female body contributed towards greater equality between the sexes. However, the gender order did not change fundamentally and the ideal woman of the interwar years was represented as a modern, emancipated race mother.

"Almost invisible scars": medical tourism to Brazil.

Along with a handful of other nations in the developing world, Brazil has emerged as a top destination for medical tourism. Drawing on the author's ethnographic fieldwork in plastic surgery wards, this article examines diverse factors - some explicitly promoted in medical marketing and news sources, others less visible - contributing to Brazil's international reputation for excellence in cosmetic plastic surgery. Brazil's plastic surgery residency programs, some of which are housed within its public health system, attract overseas surgeons, provide ample opportunities for valuable training in cosmetic techniques, and create a clinical environment that favors experimentation with innovative techniques. Many graduates of these programs open private clinics that, in turn, attract overseas patients. High demand for Brazilian plastic surgery also reflects an expansive notion of female health that includes sexual realization, mental health, and cosmetic techniques that manage reproduction. Medical tourism is sometimes represented as being market-driven: patients in wealthier nations travel to obtain quality services at lower prices. This article ends by reflecting on how more complex local and transnational dynamics also contribute to demand for elective medical procedures such as cosmetic surgery.