I was very healthy before starting work in the nail industry. Three or four years after working in the nail salon industry, my hands started shaking. My entire left arm went numb, so I couldn’t feel it a lot. At work, while massaging customers, I would pretend to use my left hand to push, but really I was just doing the motion. My right hand was doing most of the massage. I also had bad body aches… After the situation with the hand, in 2012, I got cervical cancer. I don’t know if any of my body aches or left hand numbing or the cancer is related to the nail salon industry. I just know that after the cancer treatment I had to quit the nail salon work because it is too dangerous for me now.
Trish Pham, Former Nail Care Professional
My name is Trish Pham. I came to the US in 2004 when I was 45 years old. I immediately started going to manicurist school, and then upon graduation two months later started working in nail salons.
My body has always been more sensitive than other people. In the nail salon, we use acetone and alcohol a lot, so the smell is really heavy with chemicals. As a result, my nose would get extremely irritated. Everytime I work on a customer, my nose would start running from the chemicals by the end of the manicure or pedicure. I would then need to step outside immediately. With the breath of fresh air, after a while my body would stabilize and I would not have a runny nose anymore. However, if customers are back to back and I don’t have time to go outside or if the store is not well aired, I would have to work with a runny nose. This means that I would put a towel inside the mask then wear the mask. This way, when my nose starts running, the towel would catch it. This is hard for me because with the towel inside the mask I cannot breath well.
Also, with a runny nose, my throat would itch and I would start coughing very often. This makes my customer very uncomfortable but what can I do? I already earn much less than everyone else ($200-300 per week for a full 5-6 days of work) because I cannot work faster due to not being able to breathe.
I was very healthy before starting work in the nail industry. Three or four years after working in the nail salon industry, my hands started shaking. My entire left arm went numb, so I couldn’t feel it a lot. At work, while massaging customers, I would pretend to use my left hand to push, but really I was just doing the motion. My right hand was doing most of the massage. I also had bad body aches. Luckily, my brother told me to try glucosamine. I drank it for 1 week and my numb left arm stopped.
After the situation with the hand, in 2012, I got cervical cancer. I don’t know if any of my body aches or left hand numbing or the cancer is related to the nail salon industry. I just know that after the cancer treatment I had to quit the nail salon work because it is too dangerous for me now. I am now 63 years old.
I did not know anything about the ingredients of acetone and alcohol and other nail salon products. If the ingredients were in English I would not have understood. Maybe if the ingredients are listed in Vietnamese I might. But ingredient names are scientific and I would still I have a hard time understanding it in Vietnamese.
The owner would be the one to buy ingredients for the employees, so I don’t have a choice in what products I use. The owner would buy bulk products and pour them into smaller bottles for employees, so I also did not know the brand or ingredients.
There was no education for me around toxic chemicals. Everyone is working fast and they only care for money. No one cares about your health. Stateboard only assess the safety for customers but not about chemicals for employees.
Español – LA HISTORIA DE TRISH
