London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Getting a manicure? Wear gloves or sunscreen, GP warns, after study reveals UV lamp risks

Getting a manicure? Wear gloves or sunscreen, GP warns, after study reveals UV lamp risks

A GP has told Sky News it's "better to be safe than sorry" if you regularly get manicures at a nail salon after a study found UV lamps used to dry gel nails can kill cells - and could be linked to skin cancer.
If your idea of pampering involves a trip to the nail salon, a doctor has a warning for you - protect your hands or risk damaging your skin cells permanently.

Dr Najia Shaikh - a GP, skin doctor and the founder of One Skin Clinic - told Sky News "it's better to be safe than sorry" when getting a manicure.

Her warning comes after a study found the UV nail polish dryers used in salons can damage DNA and lead to cancer-causing mutations in human cells.

The study looked at cells from humans and mice, and found cells died when exposed to levels of UV radiation commonly found in nail salon dryers.

'It's better to protect your hands'

Dr Shaikh said there's still very little evidence about the exact harm caused by nail lamps.

But she added "any kind of UV radiation can actually affect the cells, mutate the cells, change the DNA".

"It's better to protect your hands," she said.

She advised people to wear gloves with the fingertips cut off, or to apply a broad-spectrum cream with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 50 that protects against both UVA and UVB rays, if they do choose to expose their hands to the lamps.

These precautions are particularly important for people who get manicures regularly as the effect of UV is cumulative, getting worse with each exposure, she said.

The study doesn't mean everyone should immediately cancel their nail appointments, though, according to Dr Shaikh.

She likened the risk level to the dangers of a sunny day.

"We can't stop people from going out in the sun just because sun radiation is going to cause damage," she said.

What is important is being aware of the potential risks and guarding against them, she added.

UV lamps cause cells to die

Scientists have long sounded alarm bells over the cancer risk related to salon sunbeds used for tanning but new research indicates the devices used to dry gel manicures could also be harmful.

Tanning beds use a spectrum of UV light that studies have conclusively proven to cause cancer - but the spectrum used in the nail dryers has not been well-studied.

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have now found the nail dryers cause cells to die and cause mutations that could lead to cancer.

The researchers noted that a long-term epidemiological study would need to be done before "stating conclusively" that using the machines leads to an increased risk of skin cancers.

But Ludmil Alexandrov, one of the authors of the study published in Nature Communications and a professor at UC San Diego, said the devices were currently being "marketed as safe", even though little research has been done into the dryers.

What the researchers found

Use of the UV dryers for one 20-minute session resulted in 20-30% cell death, researchers found, while three consecutive 20-minute exposures caused 65-70% of the exposed cells to die.

The study looked at cells from both humans and mice. The cells were exposed to two different conditions: acute exposure, classed as two 20-minute sessions an hour apart, and chronic exposure, 20-minute sessions on three consecutive days.

Mr Alexandrov said they saw that DNA gets damaged and that some damage does not get repaired over time. This DNA damage leads to mutations after every exposure with a UV nail polish dryer.

Exposure may also cause "mitochondrial dysfunction" which could result in additional mutations, he said.

"We looked at patients with skin cancers, and we see the exact same patterns of mutations in these patients that were seen in the irradiated cells."

The idea for the study came from an article Mr Alexandrov read about a young beauty pageant contestant who was diagnosed with a rare form of skin cancer on her finger.

"I thought that was odd, so we began looking into it, and noticed a number of reports in medical journals saying that people who get gel manicures very frequently - like pageant contestants and aestheticians - are reporting cases of very rare cancers in the fingers, suggesting that this may be something that causes this type of cancer," he said.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×