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[헤럴드경제=고재우 기자] Mr. Park (30), an office worker, is a maniac for nail art. She used to go to nail salons and switched to ‘self-nails’.
Mr. Park said, “If you get a service from a professional shop, 100,000 won is standard.” “A gel nail lamp is essential for nail art. There are as many as four items, including products I bought myself and gift items I received from the shop.”
These days, nail art is popular among people in their 20s and 30s, like Park. A must-have for nail art is the gel nail lamp. A lamp that hardens gel nails that have been painted or attached to the nails. With the popularity of ‘self-nails’ at home, there are many gel nail lamps sold for home use.
If you enjoy nail art, there are things you should keep in mind. A shocking study has found that gel nail lamps can cause skin cancer.
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A research team led by Ludmil Alexandrov at the University of California, USA recently published a study on the effect of UV drying equipment for gel nails on the occurrence of skin cancer through the international journal Nature Communications.
First, the research team irradiated adult skin keratinocytes, human foreskin fibroblasts, and rat embryonic fibroblasts with a UV drying device (ultraviolet rays of 340 to 395 nm) commonly used in nail salons.
As a result of the study, 20 to 30% of cells were killed when irradiated with a UV dryer for gel nails for 20 minutes once, and 65 to 70% when irradiated for 20 minutes three times. In addition, the incidence of cell mutations commonly present in melanoma, a type of skin cancer, increased by up to 12%.
Professor Ludmil Alexandrov said, “We confirmed that DNA was damaged through experiments. Further, DNA damage did not recover over time, and we saw mutations occur whenever exposed to UV dryers for gel nails.” .
“Long-term epidemiologic studies will be needed before concluding that the use of UV dryers for gel nails increases the risk of skin cancer,” he added.
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Nelzeil lamps for professionals have excellent performance and require relatively little exposure time, but popular products these days require exposure to the lamp for a long time compared to professionals. There are high-priced products in the 100,000 won range and low-priced products under 10,000 won.
Mr. Park, who enjoys doing self-nails, said, “I use it several times to harden it. Since I am not an expert, I make mistakes and lack of skills, so I have no choice but to use it several times every time I use it.”
On the other hand, as non-face-to-face activities increase after the spread of COVID-19 and interest in nail beauty grows, the number of people enjoying self-nails is greatly increasing. The industry estimates that the self-nail market will reach about 200 billion won as of last year.