Health & safety salon inspection shown on "The Fun Police"

[NoticeableNails]

Hi Guys,

I just thought I'd raise this program to the attention of those who missed it.

Thursday 4th December; Channel 4 - Cutting Edge (The fun police)

It featured a health and safety inspection of a couple of nail bars in the UK. It left me with mixed feelings really. I am glad that such inspections take place; as this can only help the standard of the salons here. But what left me shouting at the T.V. screen was the inspectors lack of accurate knowledge. She was aware of the use of MMA within the industry and that it is banned in the U.S. and the damage it caused to the natural nail. But what let her down was the fact she referred to it as "nail glue", and during the inspection asked for samples of the "nail glue". Surely no nail glue (adhesive) would contain MMA?!? So how is her inspection going to change anything?

You can watch the entire program via 4OD if you are in the UK.

I have recorded the relevant sections and I am currently trying to get it on YouTube. Ill post a link once I manage to.

What are you feelings on this programme? Did you watch it?

 

[tracey louise]

yes i watched this programme jo and i was also shouting at the tv as i thought the same as you.
she did actually get given some nail glue aswell for testing and thats when i was really shouting.
i also thought she should be asking about the monomer so i do apologise if i am wrong in thinking this.
im suprised that this has only just been brought up.
surely if she she is suppose to be inspecting for health and safetly then shouldnt she know what she should be looking for.i understand that she is not a nail tech but surely she should know the right terminology for things that she is testing.
i feel abit sorry for her because if she has got it wrong then how embarressed must she feel doing it on tv.

 

[femmefan]

I was absolutely livid watching this program! What are channel 4 playing at? The title "The Fun Police" says a lot really about what the program was aiming for, and about 90% of it was very tongue in cheek with explanation of why and how you should clean a water spillage off the floor. Pointing out that in this country we seem to have a need to regulate for common sense and treat the public like babies due to the increasing irresponsible behaviour and 'compensation culture' is one thing, but mixing it in with some really serious health and safety issues like unsafe cutting machines capable of chopping off a workers fingers and dangerous chemicals like MMA sends out the wrong message. I'm not saying that a wet floor can't be dangerous, but it really isn't the same kind of danger as a chemical which they have no idea about. I applaude the council involved in inspecting the nail bars for at least being aware of MMA and trying to do something to combat it but really, they should at least do their homework properly. How can we, as professionals, hope to educate the public when someone is paid £400 to teach how to safely pick up a box from the floor (while the workers snigger behind their hands and try their best not to burst out laughing) but a health and safety inspector paid to check up on nail bars doesn't know which product to test for MMA? Do Channel 4 researchers not have access to the internet? Do they not have an obligation to ensure that information going out in their programs is correct? Anyone know how to make a complaint to channel 4? This is an outrage

 

[femmefan]

Just came across this link for the BBC who also seem to think MMA is glue. At least they do refer to it as a liquid!

BBC NEWS | Health | Call for UK ban on fake-nail glue

 

[FrenchQueen]

This is interesting.
My brother owns a pharmacy and when I first learned about mma I went in to check his stock as basically all pharmacies here stock cheap do your own acrylic kits and I felt that I should be making him aware of mma. When I checked them they were ok but I was suprised to find methyl methacrylate or mma listed in several of the "nail glue" "tip glue" products by the same companies.
Although most techs i believe would never use these products or reccommend them to people I have had the occasional client come back to me with a broken nail glued back on. They only ever did it the once as I made sure I educated them on all the reasons not to do this.
It's easy for us to get fixated only on MMA in monomer but
Perhaps this is something else that we should all be looking out for.

 

[sknight]

As far as I am aware it is only mma in monomer that you should avoid. More info on MMA can be found here
http://www.salongeek.com/health-safety-unatural/2698-mma.html

 

[femmefan]

This is interesting.
My brother owns a pharmacy and when I first learned about mma I went in to check his stock as basically all pharmacies here stock cheap do your own acrylic kits and I felt that I should be making him aware of mma. When I checked them they were ok but I was suprised to find methyl methacrylate or mma listed in several of the "nail glue" "tip glue" products by the same companies.
Although most techs i believe would never use these products or reccommend them to people I have had the occasional client come back to me with a broken nail glued back on. They only ever did it the once as I made sure I educated them on all the reasons not to do this.
It's easy for us to get fixated only on MMA in monomer but
Perhaps this is something else that we should all be looking out for.

I'm sure I've read that mma is also in acrylic powder but is not dangerous in this polymerised form, only in the liquid form. Every article I've ever read about the dangers of mma have talked about liquid monomer - never powders or glue so perhaps it is more complicated than just looking for that ingredient. Perhaps a chemical expert could enlighten us about the glue form?

 

[tracey louise]

I'm sure I've read that mma is also in acrylic powder but is not dangerous in this polymerised form, only in the liquid form. Every article I've ever read about the dangers of mma have talked about liquid monomer - never powders or glue so perhaps it is more complicated than just looking for that ingredient. Perhaps a chemical expert could enlighten us about the glue form?

i agree,i also found out that it was in powders but was reasurred its only dangerous if its in lquid form,ive never heard about it being a problem in glue etc... so it would be interesting to find out abit more info on what the inspector lady was actually looking for

 

[NoticeableNails]

I know this was ages ago now, but I'm sure with the xmas rush many would have missed it.
Plus I've only just managed to sort a video clip out
here it is:

I hope it works. I'm sorry its not the best quality.