Can being sensational harm your unborn child?

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The Geek

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The word Sensational simply grabs your attention and does not let go. Being the curious geek that I am, I grabbed my sacred dictionary to look for this powerful word and I came across a few interesting definitions:
  • Exceptionally good
  • Attracting a great deal of interest
  • And giving too much emphasis to the most shocking and lurid aspects of something
Wow. The last one took a bit of a bad turn for the worse.

Kind of like the sensational article published by The Daily Mail in early October titled: “Can a job in a nail salon harm unborn babies?”

Stop the press! This has got to be news! How could we have missed this as an industry that is decades old, where 95% to 98% of all people working as nail technicians are women? Heck, the majority of those in child rearing years! Holy cow… now that I think about it, for several generations, professional nail technicians have been reproducing just like every non professional nail technician… How could we have missed this? It’s about time a study like this is made public!

The sensationally stinky story

I began searching and sifting the net in search of all of the actual articles and papers that the Daily Mail were using for their references. I began sending off vast amounts of emails and making long distance calls to Canada in an attempt to clear the air. I was corresponding with doctors and scientists and even the Daily Mail journalist (who’s only response was a rather cold and rude email that was as much help as taking a laxative for a toothache).

Eventually, I received an email with pages of documentation on the study where each page was dubiously stamped ‘Confidential. Do not distribute’. I eagerly read and devoured the Holy Grail of my search only to discover that oddly enough, there was not a nail technician in sight that participated in the study. Out of 200,000 mothers to chose from, they whittled the list quickly down to 82, and then down to 32 (none of them nail technicians). Some of those 32 people that were left included people that admitted to binge drinking and marijuana use.

Eh? You read right. You had a couple of drunk and possibly stoned Funeral Embalmers, about 8 Lab Technicians, one Chemical Technologist, a Science Teacher and some other odds and ends. The closest one could come to resemble a nail technician was one Hair stylist and one Salon receptionist (What kind of salon? Who knows? Since when did the receptionist have massive exposure to salon solvents?).

Put on your own investigative hat and figure out why the Daily Mail didn’t title the story: “Can a job as an Embalmer harm unborn babies?”

Reading the study is quite sensational. Most of those included in the study were not even exposed on an occupational level to the solvents mentioned. In fact, reading the study I was surprised to discover their own mention that there was simply not enough data to actually draw a conclusion!

[break]The sensational Doughnut

We the public pass by the traditional coffee dunkers in favour for those news nuggets filled with artificial flavour and coloured jellies, preferably dusted with copious amounts of fake sugar. If we are going to eat it than damn it, it better be sensational!

That is of course until it hits a little too close to home.

Fortunately nail enhancement products are some of the most studied and researched products out there. For over 75 years, enamels and solvents used in our industry have been used safely by countless nail technicians that conceive and carry to full term and beyond, normal, happy and healthy children while they pursue their full time careers as professional nail technicians. In fact, there have never been a disproportionate number of unhealthy children born to professional nail technicians when compared to national averages.

In correspondence with Doug Schoon, I think he put it best:

“Many people, including myself, would agree with the statement that ‘reducing exposure to organic solvents during pregnancy is warranted...’ that's nothing new.* But that's the same as saying when you're pregnant you should take more precautions in general and reduce your exposure to many things, including stress.* That's just good common safety practices.*Organic solvents have been around for many decades and have been the subject of many, many studies without anyone seeing*these problems before. These are not a new class of new materials which we have very little information. They are very well studied.”

Sensationalism is a symptom of today’s society. The only real solution is to rise up against the artificial flavourings and fake sweeteners. Realise that they are the ones making a stink in a vain attempt to scare and sell.
 

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