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By Todd
A. Smith*
For many,
pedicures are a vital and soothing part of a self-pampering
routine. But for one 11-year-old California girl, a simple trip
to the nail salon turned into a saga of infection, pain, and
scarring.
After leaving
the salon she developed painful sores on her legs, 85 on one
leg, and nearly 100 on the other by her mother’s count,
the result of a bacterial infection. In a lawsuit filed against
Silver Nails II, her family alleges the salon let dangerous
bacteria accumulate in the shop’s whirlpool foot baths.
After four
months of treatment by strong antibiotics, the girl is facing
the prospect of permanent disfigurement. “The scarring
is beginning to show,” says the girl’s mother. “She’s
probably going to need plastic surgery.”
While most
manicure and pedicure salons follow strict health and safety
guidelines, health experts say those shops that don’t can
put customers at risk for skin infections and other harmful
diseases, including Hepatitis B and C, fungal infections such
as athlete's foot and nail fungus, and bacterial infections
such as psuedomonas, staphylococcus, and streptococcus.
The 11-year-old
girl is one of 96 people so far who have reported symptoms of
this pedicure-related infection, according to officials in the
California county where she lives. In addition to Silver Nails
II, thirteen other area salons are cited in the complaints.
Four years ago, a salon in another part of the California was
linked to 110 similar infections.
On the other
side of the country, a recent TV consumer investigation in Philadelphia
found salons that didn’t clean their equipment, and one
woman who had to have foot surgery because of the resulting
infection.
Silver Nails
II had a history of health violations, having been cited for
inadequate disinfection, and was fined $700 for failing to properly
disinfect the foot spas in-between customers a few months before
the girl’s fateful pedicure. The damage suffered by the
young girl is more than physical. “I feel out of place
and not normal,” she wrote in a letter that was read to
a neighborhood support group for others with this skin infection.
“I had to miss all the pool parties, and I can’t wear
a skirt to school.”
According
to health officials, there are some steps you can take to reduce
your risk of contracting a skin infection:
- Check
to make sure the establishment has a current and displayed
license and your manicurist or cosmetologist has a license
posted at her work station.
- Ask salon
staffers how they disinfect equipment. If they don't give
a good answer, hesitate or won't answer you, consider taking
your business elsewhere.
- Don't
shave your legs right before a pedicure. A medical study has
found that infections are more likely in patrons who have
recently shaved their legs.
- If the
foot spa's basin looks dirty, consider having a pedicure without
the use of a whirlpool spa.
- If you
have any doubts about the cleanliness standards at a salon,
leave.
Consumers
can only do so much on their own. Despite strong sanitation
regulations, a risk persists because there are so few field
inspectors tasked with enforcing these standards. For instance,
there are just 17 field inspectors for the 37,000 licensed nail
care establishments in the state of California. While they managed
an astonishing 8,200 inspections during the last fiscal year,
most were in response to consumer complaints and county public
health requests.
As the popularity
of cosmetic treatments grows, state health authorities have
an obligation to be more vigilant and proactive in protecting
the public. And state lawmakers need to give health inspectors
the tools and funding they need to their jobs.
Unfortunately, such reforms will come too late for the young
girl and for other victims of permanent scarring and disfigurement.
One such victim, 23-year-old Lisa Conley, speaks for too many
when she says, “If they could give me something, I’d
want my legs back. X amount of dollars is not going to compensate
for what’s been done to me.”
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