Getting Non-Toxic Tools of the Trade for Nail Salon Workers

In 2010, the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative organized a grassroots campaign for better work conditions with Bay Area salon workers, many of them immigrant women who spoke poor English. This campaign led to the establishment of California’s county health department-certified system of healthy nail salons.

The Healthy Nail Salon Recognition (HNSR) Program allows local jurisdictions, such as Alameda County, to recognize salons that follow voluntary and standardized healthy nail salon guidelines to reduce worker and consumer exposure. More and more salons across the country are moving to the use of non-toxic nail polishes.

In 2023, California Healthy Nail Salons Collaborative, Women’s Voices for the Earth, and Black Women for Wellness issued its report: Exposed: Ingredients in Salon Products & Salon Worker Health and Safety. This accompanying fact sheet, available in Vietnamese, English, and Spanish, states that “salon workers are predominantly a workforce of low-income women and people of color—meaning the exposure to toxic chemicals in the salon is compounded by many other threats they already face that are related to their gender, race, economic status, access to quality healthcare, and more.”

Recently, salon product manufacturers have become more transparent in providing information about the chemicals used in their products. In 2020, California began to require manufacturers to disclose ingredients. In 2022, Congress passed the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act, bringing the rest of the nation up to par with California.