I’d love somebody with an informed opinion to weigh in here. Is this bad science? Bad reporting? Or is there genuine danger here that’s been flying under the radar?
My concern is, we see a lot of sensational science reporting that plays up the risks and dangers of potentially routine things, lowering public trust in science.
The question is, in vivo, do actual fingers in actual real world usage experience outsized DNA damage compared to moderate sun exposure.
You’re not going to get that answer from cultured cells like that.
If you wanted to do a study explicitly to create sensational headlines, this is how you’d do it. Take a similar situation but modify it so a bad outcome is certain then suggest the much different real world case is similar.
Given case reports of strange cancer in fingers further study is interesting, but I wouldn’t go around trying to make fans of fancy nails panic quite yet. (Who knows, some of the solvents and miscellaneous substances may be the culprit more than UV)
I think most risk has to do with manufacturers' lax attitude for safety and consumer expectations and impatience.
Not that it is a particularly healthy thing to radiate oneself with UV but what is life without some color.
Not unlike fake UV protection fitted glasses, that not only don't filter out the radiation, they're dimming enough to make your eyes allow more of it in the result.
Also makes me curious about those UV teeth-whitening devices and whether there is any similar research for them. I don't know how valid such a concern would be, but it seems reasonable to assume that the skin inside the mouth wasn't designed to be exposed to UV as much as skin on the outside of the body, so I wonder if it's more susceptible to damage from that type of thing.
There are UV protecting gloves put there. I wonder how effective they are though? I know UPF fabric shirts definitely stop me from getting burned when fishing.
The one I own has 4 settings: 10, 30, 60 and 100 seconds.
They last for 2 to 3 weeks.
I wonder how much damage happens from exposing your fingers for 30 seconds every 2-3 weeks.
I'm thinking there could be some risks for technicians who spend their days next to the devices, but devices usually don't leak any light.
With DNA damage being cumulative I'd imagine the DNA repair systems can't keep up with that many molecular lesions at once.
