King County’s Healthy Nail Salon Project

Healthy practices for nail salons from King County DNRP on Vimeo.

In King County, Washington, the Hazardous Waste Program has started the Healthy Nail Salon Project to help inform nail salon owners and techs on how to properly ventilate their workspace to improve indoor air quality and decrease vapors.

Project partners worked with the University of Washington’s Department of Environmental Health and Occupational Health Sciences to run tests on the amount of vapors present during artificial nail applications with and without a nail ventilation system present to show how much proper ventilation can decrease vapors.

Laurie Foster is the Healthy Nail Salon Project coordinator with the Local Hazardous Waste Management Program in King County (LHWMP), and she is working closely with community outreach specialist Tram Duong with the Environmental Coalition of South Seattle to help build connections with Vietnamese salons to create informational materials in Vietnamese as well as English.

Foster says very little information exists in Vietnamese on safe chemical handling and other safety practices, and it’s not usually translated into the appropriate dialect for workers. Duong will help interpret the information in a new safety video during in-person safety trainings with nail salon employees.

The LHWMP in King County is offering help for nail salons within its borders with a free technical visit and financial assistance for supplies and equipment.

For more information, visit http://www.lhwmp.org/home/health/nail-salons.aspx.

— Tim