UV Lamp: Harmful or Not?

UV Lamp

UV Lamp, is it harmful or not? Some people says it's not harmful while some people say it can kill you. Why is that? You can find it out in this blog.

UV Lamp also known as Ultra Violet Lamp. This is usually used in nail salons or nail technicians to dry their nail polishes or cure gel nails or polishes.

A lot of women nowadays are in the line of trend for gel nails and nail arts or just having their fingernails colored and stand out the crowd. Women are vain thus they always want to look beautiful everyday in every way. But, what they do not know is by using such material, it can give them severe illness thus can cause death if not treated.

According to Dr. Richard Langley, director of research at Dalhousie University's dermatology division in Halifax, "The scientific evidence that UV nail lights used in the dryers can cause cancer are both direct and indirect." He pointed to published case reports of young women with no family history of skin cancer and little evidence of sun damage who developed skin cancers on their fingers around their nails after regularly using UV nail dryers. Lab investigations and clinical studies have also found UV can cause skin cancer, he noted.

UV Lamps are also the same as a tanning bed which can not only make your skin older, it can also give you skin cancer. Women do not think that it is harmful because we just use it for our nails but you do not know is the the UV Light is also going direct to our skin same as the tanning bed.




"The nail drying lights emit UVA rays, which can penetrate the skin much more deeply" explains Dr. Marcy Street, a board certified Mayo Clinic trained dermatologist and first female African American MOHS surgeon in the country. "These lights are considered as dangerous as tanning beds when it comes to the skin. The problem is that not enough has been done to educate the public about them because they are only thought of as dryers for nail polish."

A study last year in the Archives of Dermatology found that two cases of healthy middle-aged women without family histories of skin cancer who developed non-melanoma skin cancers on their hands. The report linked the cancers to UV nail lights. Arch Dermatol. 2009;145(4):447-449.


Doctors say that you can lessen the lights that been projected to your skin by wearing gloves or putting towel or some barriers around your skin. You can also put sunscreen on your skin. But these methods as they say is not enough to prevent skin damage from the UV Light.

Best way is to not use UV Lamps in drying your nail polish. If you really need it, you can use it not too much and remember to protect your skin from the the rays of the UV light. You can always use a fan dryer to dry your nails or just wait until your polish are completely dry.


In general, the more exposure you have, the more risk you have of developing skin cancer from UV Lamps, so again, you decide, UV Lamp: Harmful or Not?





I would like to acknowledge News9 Oklahoma City for the video
Nail Dryers Could Increase Risk of Skin Cancer


I would also want to thank DermTV.com with Dr. Neal Schultz for the video
Are UV Nail Dryers Dangerous [DermTV.com Epi #219]