A nail technician polishing a woman’s nails.
There has been a lot of concern about whether there is formaldehyde in nail polish. The short answer is that there is none. While nail polish may contain chemicals derived from formaldehyde, in its pure form, formaldehyde itself is not an ingredient.
The reason many people are concerned about the existence of formaldehyde in nail polish is the listing of formaldehyde as a substance capable of causing cancer in humans. Unfortunately, there is some misunderstanding about the nature of formaldehyde and how or when it can cause cancer risk. A great deal of readily available misinformation has led some people to believe that there are dangerous levels of formaldehyde in enamel, when there simply isn’t.
Clear nail polish.
Formaldehyde is an organic gas composed of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon; It occurs naturally and is found in the human body, as well as in certain unprocessed foods that people eat, including some types of fruits and vegetables. In its pure state, it is a colorless, flammable gas with a very strong odour. Both the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have determined that excessive exposure to formaldehyde gas, especially over a long period of time, can cause cancer in a rare form. nasal. Foods and other substances that release or contain a formaldehyde concentration of 0.2% or less are considered perfectly safe.
Enamel contains various chemicals, but not pure formaldehyde.
Among its many purposes, formaldehyde is used to produce several important chemical compounds in the manufacture of certain products. Due to its fragility as a gas, when formaldehyde is mixed with other compounds, mainly liquids, a phenomenon called chemical bonding occurs, which transforms into a completely different substance, losing its formaldehyde characteristics. In other words, when gaseous formaldehyde is mixed with solids or liquids, it is no longer formaldehyde.
Before the chemical bonding process in relation to formaldehyde was clearly understood, if a product was made with the substance, it had to be listed as an ingredient. This was true even though the compound had a completely different chemical composition and did not have the same properties as formaldehyde. As the chemical structure of formaldehyde and the compounds it was used to create became clearer, this labeling requirement was removed. Still, some products continue to list formaldehyde as an ingredient, although this is not an accurate classification.
One of these formaldehyde compounds, called formalin and also known as methylene glycol, is often included as an ingredient in nail polish. Although formalin is usually produced by mixing gaseous formaldehyde with water, it is chemically unrelated to formaldehyde and is an entirely different substance. However, as a result of outdated labeling requirements, many nail polishes still list formaldehyde as an ingredient. Consequently, many people are misled into believing that there is formaldehyde in enamel when, in fact, it is formalin, an entirely different compound that poses no known cancer risk.
Another confusing substance is known as tosylamide formaldehyde resin. This substance is sometimes used in the manufacture of nail polish. Just like formalin, although it is made with formaldehyde, it has a completely different chemical composition. It is not a gas, but a thick, sticky substance. The confusion is compounded by the fact that the substance contains formaldehyde in its name. But the fact is, even though tosylamide formaldehyde resin is listed as an ingredient, there is no actual formaldehyde in nail polish.