Reproductive Justice, Nail Salons… and the Environment?
Environmental Justice is the movement against the unequal distribution of environmental burdens and benefits. The environment in this case is broadly defined as where people live, work, and play. It is in this lens that POLISH and ACRJ relate as an environmental justice issue because it is mainly due to the chemicals in the workplace that women working in nail salons are suffering.
Though the average news article will focus on the consumer aspect of cosmetic chemicals in nail salons, the people truly impacted are the nail salon workers. In California, over 80% of nail salon workers are of Vietnamese descent. The women workers in nail salons are the community most at risk from the chemicals found in their workplace. When a consumer may be in a nail salon for an hour or so, many nail salon workers work up to ten hour shifts daily. Workers have a much greater exposure time to these chemicals and are therefore more susceptible to the risks these exposures bring. Most workers in this situation are concerned not only for their own health, but also for the health of the children they plan on having.
Health problems that nail salons workers face usually include increased sensitivity to chemicals, body aches and stiffness, and respiratory problems. Symptoms include rashes that do not go away, dizziness, and chronic coughing. Because of the various chemicals that are in use daily, it is hard to pinpoint which chemicals cause what, or if the symptoms are a result of a mix. These problems can be somewhat diminished by proper ventilation and taking frequent breaks to stretch. The issue of reproductive health, however, is not so easily mitigated.
When thinking of reproductive justice many think only of Roe v. Wade, but it has a very different lens in the nail salon workers communities. Many women quit when they become pregnant in order to avoid chemical exposures to the fetus. Studies find that children exposed to nail salon chemicals prenatally were found to perform worse on tests for cognitive function, language, and behavior. Phthalates, which can be found in nail polishes, are also found to have a much more detrimental effect on male babies than female babies. Specific stories tell of babies that are born with bodily malformations and the need to feed them through tubes. The reproductive effects of chemicals found in nail salons is highly denied by the manufacturers, which is why both environmental and reproductive justice advocates are fighting for greater governmental involvement in the protection of workers constantly exposed to these chemicals.
The health of these women falls under Environmental Justice for many reasons. First of all, there was enough concern about the health of nail salon workers that the EPA created a handbook on the subject as a means to help workers develop habits that would reduce their amount of exposure to chemicals and noxious fumes. In Springfield, Massachusetts the EPA granted $100,000 to a community group to build a salon with a high-quality ventilation system to serve as a model for salon owners and workers. Secondly, the United States looks to cosmetic corporations to test their own chemicals, relying on risk assessment. Risk assessment is flawed in its own right because testing typically focuses on acute exposures rather than chronic exposures. This means that the women who go into nail salons for an hour may be protected, but the workers who are exposed for up to ten hours a day every day are not focused on at all. Also, OSHA Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs) do not take into account chemical soups – just one chemical at a time. The European Union, however, uses the precautionary principle and forces the cosmetic companies there to take out any chemicals that could possibly cause harm. The precautionary principle is one of the main principles that environmental justice advocates fight for. Environmental justice advocates won a victory in California with State Bill 484, otherwise known as the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2005. This act is supposed to force cosmetic companies to disclose any and all ingredients of their products that are or are suspected to be a cause of cancer or reproductive problems. Unfortunately it seems that the state government lacks the funding to implement any real enforcement as of yet.
Another tie into the environmental justice movement is the current regulations and the gaps they leave regarding the Vietnamese community. The language barrier is a very real issue. In California, the Board of Barbering and Cosmetology offers the licensing tests in English and Vietnamese only. The laws, however, are written only in English so many of the Vietnamese workers are fined for infractions that they are either unaware of or simply cannot read. Like many other environmental justice issues the language barrier is major cause as to why public participation in events is either very low or not very effective. The fact that women must travel to Sacramento to fight the citation claims is also an environmental justice issue as it is an unnecessary burden that many women do not have the time or money to make the trip, nor the English skill to speak on their own behalf. The cost of a translator is also a cost the speaker is expected to take on themselves.
To improve the working conditions of the nail salon and the safety of the workers many things need to happen at every level. At the individual nail salon level, there needs to be ventilation as well as enough break time for workers to stretch and eat. At the state level, the Board of Barbering and Cosmetology needs to start translating all the laws and regulations into Vietnamese. It would also benefit workers if the citation hearings were held locally instead of the state offices in Sacramento. On a national level, the FDA should take charge of testing chemicals in cosmetics and controlling their use. Until much more is done regarding the chemicals found in cosmetics and the health effects they have on the workers that use them, nail salons will continue to be a focus of the reproductive and environmental justice movements.
