Spa+Clinic Team Do you get questions about the health risks associated with the use of UV lamps? To help you answer with authority, here are 10 facts about UV lamps from several experts, care of CND:
- Dr. Robert M. Sayre, Ph.D., of Rapid Precision Testing Laboratories, one of the creators of the SPF rating system: ‘UV nail lamps are safer than natural sunlight or sunlamps.’
- Dr. David Valia, director of research and development for CND, compares the exposure from a UV lamp to that of indoor fluorescent lighting. He explains, ‘The amount of energy from a UV lamp during a nail service would be roughly equivalent to the amount of UV exposure one would experience during a typical day of exposure in indoor fluorescent lighting.’
- According to Dr. Sayre: ‘People who are indoors have little to no skin risk due to long term exposure to fluorescent lighting. People who sunbathe or work outdoors have real risks of excessive UV exposure, the cause of sunburn and skin cancer.’
- ‘The CND UV Nail Lamp bulb emits almost exclusively (more than 99%) UVA-1, the safest part of the ultraviolet spectrum,’ says Dr. Sayre.
- The exposure from a bi-weekly UV manicure is equivalent to ‘an extra 1-2 minutes in daylight each day between salon visits,’ says Doug Schoon, CND’s Chief Scientific Advisor and author of Nail Structure and Product Chemistry.
- Although hands are the most exposed, they’re also the least susceptible to UV sensitivity. According to Dr. Sayre, ‘It would take 6 – 10 times more exposure to your hands to produce mild sunburn than it would to produce a burn on your face, abdomen or back. UV Nail Lamps are used on one of the least susceptible parts of your body.’
- Hands get more UV exposure holding the steering wheel of a car or talking on a cell phone outside than they do from the use of UV nail lamps.
- UV nail lamps have been on the market for over 30 years and there have been no proven reports linking them to premature aging or skin cancer.
- Just like you put sunscreen on your face, we recommend putting sunscreen on your hands throughout the day, especially after washing them.
- According to a recent study published in The Journal of Investigative Dermatology, researchers found that a salon client would need approximately 250 years of weekly manicures that involve the use of UV nail lights to develop the same risk of exposure as just one round of phototherapy sessions used to treat various skin conditions.
- Based on these results, researchers concluded that nail lamps do not significantly increase the risk of getting skin cancer.
CND has one of the world’s largest laboratories for professional nail research and development and utilises state-of-the-art equipment to analyse UV output, equipment design, health and safety: www.pacificnail.com.au
