Are gel manicures safe?

The University of Cincinnati's Kelly Dobos was featured in a TIME article discussing the safety of gel manicures after the European Union prohibited the use of a chemical ingredient called trimethylbenzoyl diphenylphosphine oxide (TPO) used in some gel nail polishes.

Dobos said people who get gel manicures do not need to immediately panic, as most of the research into TPO's health effects has focused on feeding it to rodents or injecting it under the skin.

"That’s not really how we’re exposed to it in a nail gel,” said Dobos, a cosmetic chemist and adjunct instructor at UC's James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy. "Your systemic exposure is very low, because it’s also reacted away when you’re exposing it to that light in the nail lamp.”

However, if someone wants to avoid TPO altogether, there are nail polishes that use a different ingredient as a photoinitiator, such as TPO-L, a modified form of TPO which remains approved in the E.U. Dobos suggested asking the salon to show you the packaging of the products being used.

“If you're concerned about what they're using, ask, because that’s generally not right in front of you at the nail salon,” she said. 

Read the TIME article.

Featured photo at top of a person getting a manicure. Photo/nazar_ab/iStock Photo.