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[music] Hello, I’m Dr. Neal Schultz
[pause]
and welcome to DermTV.
We know that UVA light is a major risk factor for all types of skin
cancers. And it doesn’t matter if that UVA light is natural UVA from the
sun or unnatural UVA from sources like tanning salon bulbs, and reports in
the past year have just reconfirmed that those tanning salon bulbs are
what’s responsible for what’s really an epidemic of skin cancers in
teenagers and people in their twenties. Now there’s a report from the
Archives of Dermatology which report an association between UV nail dryers
and an increased incidence of skin cancers on the fingers of women who
regularly use those nail dryers and had no other risk factors for skin
cancer. So I think we better take a look at those nail dryers. They’ve been
around for twenty years but they’ve become increasingly popular in the past
few years because of UV gel nails and UV gel nails are so popular because
they look very natural, they have a very high luster and there’s no odor
from the process. UV nail dryers are also used to cure acrylic nails and
just to dry regular nail polish, pedicure nail polish and interestingly,
also to help cure UV top coats which help protects nails when people are
getting tanning salon treatments. Now it turns out that the bulbs in these
UV nail dryers give exactly the same type of UVA that you get from tanning
salon bulbs and in fact the dose per square inch, when you adjust it for
the size of your fingers rather than your whole body, is the same dose that
you get from tanning salon bulbs. So the reality is, instead of waiting for
more and more reports that are going to reconfirm that these UV nail dryers
are probably responsible for what will become an epidemic of skin cancers
on the fingers, at this time just say NO when it comes to UV nail dryers.
And if you can’t say no, then at least make sure that you’re using a chem-
free sunscreen, which work immediately, on all of the skin of your fingers
around the nails, before you put your hands into UV nail dryers.