Hair Spray
Beauty Salons are discovering that odors are not the only hair contaminants – simply the most noticeable ones. By the time customers can detect “salon air,” the dust particles and vapors are doing their work on the operators’ lungs. Some develop nasal congestion, others respiratory problems; some must use bronchial dilators.
The Society of Occupational and Environmental Health Hazards observed that there is a direct correlation between the numbers of years spent working as a cosmetologist and the incidence of pulmonary thesaurosis, a restrictive lung disease.
Today, some work-related health problems fall under the “sick building syndrome,” a catch-all phrase that covers complaints about headaches, fatigue, dizziness, and dryness of the skin and eyes. It also happens in salons. In some of them, often there is no air exchange at all.
NIOSH industrial hygienists have evaluated health hazards in several salons. They reported, “Often, there was not even a provision for the introduction of outdoor air. In other cases, if it was uncomfortably hot or cold outside, they would just re-circulate indoor air and failed to bring in enough outside air to satisfy the minimum industry standard of 25 cubic feet of outside air per minute, per person.” However, even in salons that did meet those standards, operators were having asthma like symptoms.
After this result, the question was, “if the air is not the culprit, what then?” In a salon the finger tends to point toward chemicals. Yet after testing the salon’s chemicals, they have found them well within acceptable concentration levels, based on recommended exposure limits. The conclusion is that perhaps current standards just do not work for salon environments.
While the jury remains out on chemical mixes, I still have learned during all these decades as a hairdresser that respiratory problems are well known by stylists and they are not inevitable.
The president of Green Circle Solutions in New York City has made the statement that ventilation is a serious issue, and the evaluation of the amount of chemicals mixed in a particular salon will dictate the best ventilation system for that particular environment.
Most of the well-known salon contaminants come in three varieties:
1. Mists, also called aerosols, which are liquids suspended in air and, in salons, come mostly from hair sprays.
2. Dusts or particulates which include cigarette smoke, powdered bleach and particles from nail filing.
3. Vapors, which are true gases that come from bleaches, permanent wave solutions, nail preparations and other liquids.
Which should be of most concern? Hair spray. It can build up so much in the air that your hairdresser is breathing in day after day. Years of exposure to it bring respiratory problems. That’s why I am so sure to get my lungs X-rayed.
This does not affect the clients. They are exposed only few minutes a week, and this is not enough to create a health hazard. But, because it does affect your much-loved hairdresser, be nice to him/her the next time you are kept waiting or something else goes wrong. They’re risking their health for your beauty!
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