At one of five New York City nail salons monitored for a week each, the air briefly hit 113 parts per million of volatile organic compounds, the evaporating solvents in polishes, removers and glues. The measurement comes from a City University of New York study in the journal Risk Analysis, and it sits far above the 15.1 ppm average recorded across all the salons.
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The same research found that the surgical and cloth masks many salon workers wear do little against those fumes. Masks are built to catch particles and droplets, while solvent vapors pass through the weave as easily as ordinary air does. The cloth versions worn by many workers are sold for comfort and general protection, not for filtering vapor, so a worker who relies on one can feel protected while breathing the same air as a coworker with no mask at all.
Five salons, one reading a minute
Ierardi, an occupational and environmental health researcher at the CUNY School of Public Health, led the work. His team placed a data-logging photoionization detector in each of five salons between April 2023 and March 2024. The instrument recorded total volatile organic compounds every minute during working hours for about a week per site, a far denser record than the single-shift samples traditionally used.
The study in Risk Analysis reports an average total of 15.1 ppm. Peak exposures, averaged over 15-minute windows, had a median of 31.4 ppm. The single highest peak, at one salon, reached 113 ppm, a level comparable to some industrial chemical settings, according to ScienceAlert’s coverage.
A reading every minute matters because salon work is episodic. Polish is brushed on, remover is poured, acrylic is mixed and filed, and each task releases a burst of vapor that thins out until the next one. A sampler that averages across a full shift smooths those bursts into a single modest number, and a worker in the middle of a burst is breathing something quite different from that number.
Ethyl acetate, acetone and a trace of benzene
The dominant compounds were ethyl acetate, acetone, n-butyl acetate and methyl acetate, all common solvents in nail products. Benzene, a known carcinogen, was present at low concentrations. Ierardi said the team’s risk assessment suggested that long-term exposure could carry an elevated cancer risk under certain conditions, and he was careful to describe those figures as risk estimates, not evidence that workers are developing cancer.
The central methodological point concerns averages. A worker may spend a shift near 15 ppm and still absorb repeated surges several times higher during acrylic application or when remover is poured. Ierardi said the research shows that traditional air sampling and risk assessment methods do not tell the whole story for nail salons, and that the health effects of those exposures have likely been underestimated.
A summary by News-Medical adds the modeling details. Lifetime cancer risks calculated from the benzene readings exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency’s benchmark of one in a million in several salons under certain exposure scenarios. Estimates of non-cancer hazard generally stayed below the benchmark, but the upper-bound estimates exceeded it in the salon with the highest VOC concentrations.
The authors also point out that occupational exposure limits were designed around healthy, non-pregnant adult men working an eight-hour shift. Women of reproductive age make up much of the nail salon workforce, so those limits may not protect them adequately. The study did not assess symptoms or identify what caused each individual peak, and the authors recommend using peak-based metrics alongside full-shift averages when evaluating salons.
Ventilation, and why masks fall short
On protection, the study is direct. Surgical or cloth masks are ineffective against chemical fumes, so the effective controls sit in the room rather than on the face. Ventilation is the essential mitigation, though cost, noise and limited floor space can make installation hard for small businesses. A CUNY School of Public Health article on ventilation fixes covers practical options.
Lower-cost measures include opening doors and windows where possible, keeping product containers closed, and storing solvent-soaked cotton and wipes in covered bins. Each reduces the amount of solvent that escapes into the breathing zone, although none replaces mechanical ventilation. The university’s news release summarizes the findings.
Ierardi added that protecting worker health should never come at the expense of customer satisfaction, a nod to the owners who worry that strong airflow will chill clients or blow polish off wet nails. Five salons is a small sample, and results from other cities, products and seasons could look different. The 113 ppm reading belongs to a single salon on a single occasion, while the 15.1 ppm average and 31.4 ppm median peak describe the typical picture across the group. Readers weighing the numbers should keep that distinction in view, because a single spike is a ceiling on what the monitors recorded rather than a statement about every shift in every salon.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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