#0081 Occupational symptoms due to exposure to volatile organic compounds among female Vietnamese nail salon workers in Danang city
Compounding occupational symptoms: effects of volatile organic compounds on nail salon workers in Vietnam
Exposure to hazardous chemicals like methyl methacrylate acetone and toluene makes nail workers vulnerable to short- and long-term health problems. This is a grave concern in Vietnam, where the nail industry is booming and 90% of the 1,000 odd chemicals in nail products are not tested for safety. The concentration of chemicals in Vietnamese nail salons is also higher than those in Korean, British, and US salons.
Despite these negatives, there is little data on the hazards of chemical exposure among nail workers in Vietnam. We aimed to bridge that gap by analyzing the exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in Vietnamese nail salons and linking it to occupational symptoms that are observed in female nail salon workers.
We conducted a cross-sectional study between January 2019 and September 2019 in Danang, Vietnam. We collected 42 personal passive samplers using personal air-monitoring devices from 21 workers, who were representative of the larger group of workers per the principle of similar exposure groups in personal sampling. The samples were collected twice, once on a weekday and once on a weekend, and evaluated for 12 substances.
Additionally, we interviewed 100 nail workers from the 15 nail salons that agreed to participate in our study and 100 office workers from nearby areas to compare the occupational symptoms among them.
We found that acetone (present in 97.6% of the samples), butyl acetate (in 83.3%), and ethyl acetate and ethyl methacrylate (in 78%), were the most commonly detected compounds in Vietnamese nail salons. More importantly, the level of VOCs in the salons was linked to the number of serviced customers, concentration of CO2, and the type of ventilation used in salons; local ventilation was more effective than general ventilation at decreasing the concentration of VOCs.
The subjective symptoms of headache, nausea, nose irritation, skin irritation, shortness of breath, and confusion were more common among nail workers than among the comparison group of office workers due to the former group’s higher exposure to chemical compounds. Nail workers exposed to acetone levels higher than the prescribed Vietnam occupational exposure limit were also more susceptible to nose irritation than other nail workers.
Based on these findings, we recommend that nail salon workers should wear personal protective equipment to prevent and reduce their occupational symptoms, while salon owners must adopt local exhaust ventilation and other measures to protect the health of their employees.
Link to the original journal article:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1348-9585.12160
Title of the paper:
Occupational symptoms due to exposure to volatile organic compounds among female Vietnamese nail salon workers in Danang city
Authors:
Huan M. Tran, Hanh T. M. Bui, Somkiat Thoumsang, Ngoc T. B. Ngo, Nhan P. T. Nguyen, Hai T. M. Nguyen, Son M. Nguyen, Kunio Hara, Supat Wangwongwatana
