Your Voice: The hazards of nail polish; beware of social media addiction (long letters)

The hazards of nail polish are rarely talked about, yet deadly. Nail products contain chemicals that cause cancer, skin irritation and more.

Formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate and toluene? Like the average person, I hadn’t heard of half the chemicals in my favourite nail polish. Little did I know that the pink, purple and blue colourant on my nails was cancer-causing, asthma-inducing and put me at risk of other side effects like fainting, breathing problems and irritation to the eyes, skin, nose, mouth and throat.

Many of the chemicals in nail products – such as polishes, hardeners, primers, removers and disinfectants – can cause health issues, and it’s important to take precautions to avoid the risks.

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Firstly, when doing a manicure or pedicure at home, it is important to be in a well-ventilated area. The fumes from nail products can pollute your air, making it difficult to breathe and irritating your eyes, mouth and skin.

While some are tempted to use perfume or air-fresheners to mask the odour that nail lacquer produces, this can worsen the situation, as you do not realise when the fumes have spread, meaning you could unknowingly be breathing in toxic fumes. Make sure to have a window or door open to let the fumes dissipate. Fans can also be effective in circulating the air.

Secondly, it is important to protect the natural nails from different polishes, especially dark polishes prone to staining. There are a couple of ways to do this. The most widely used method is to purchase a base coat.

Another method, less well-known yet still effective, is to use a lighter-coloured nude polish to coat the natural nail before your desired colour. It’s important to add a base to your nails before polishing to ensure your natural nails are protected, especially during the removal process. Having a thin layer of base coat or lighter polish will help to avoid tearing into the natural nail with a file or acetone.

Most importantly, when it comes to picking the right nail products, it is crucial not to sacrifice quality.

The golden phrase that polishers should look for is “17-free” or “9-free”, and sometimes other terms like “7-free”. The 17 or 9 refer to the number of toxic chemicals omitted in that polish or product.

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Naturally, “17-free” is the preferred choice, but “9-free” still avoids the highly toxic formaldehyde, camphor, toluene, dibutyl phthalate and ethyl methacrylate.

If the label only says “clean” or “pure”, then make sure to double-check the ingredients list. It is usually on the back of the bottle but often can be found on the brand’s website or online store.

To conclude, it is important to keep your health a priority even when doing something as simple as painting your nails. Make sure to apply base coats, polish only in well-ventilated areas that get airflow, and most importantly use non-toxic nail polish to avoid irritation and increased risk of medical issues.

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Eunice Ng Chi-yan, St Paul’s Secondary School

I am writing to express my worry about how social media uses algorithms to track its users and contribute to social media addiction. I’m afraid that with the rapid growth of AI, it is not possible to contain more potential harm to teenagers.

I do agree that it may be convenient when similar advertisements pop up after you search for a certain product. However, things have gone way too far when apps are spying on their users 24/7.

To keep their teenage users’ attention glued to the screen, they pay attention to what the user is talking about, and then use algorithms to feed them more content that they might be interested in. Hours might pass before you finally look up from your screen.

Apart from algorithms, some functions and features on social media are also intended to keep you addicted. When you’re using Instagram, have you ever wondered why the posts are designed to let you scroll through them seamlessly? Or why YouTube has added the function “YouTube Shorts”, which allows creators to upload videos of less than one minute in length? Scrolling creates zero resistance between reading each post, and short videos are more appealing to modern people due to their short attention spans. No matter how the companies sugar-coat their designs, they all boil down to one thing: keeping you addicted.

It has long been acknowledged that teenagers feel pressured to share their daily lives on social media to blend in or create an outgoing image among peers.

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But every coin has two sides. Overexposing your daily life on social media may be dangerous, as you never know if there could be a stranger stalking you secretly. As your pictures are posted, strangers can try to look for your address, school, friends or telephone number with the help of rapidly developing artificial intelligence. Or they might even directly approach you by sending a private message. We should always be mindful of guarding against harm from others, especially online.

As divergent as people’s opinions on this issue might be, I believe self-regulation is the best way to save yourself from falling into the trap of social media addiction or privacy exposure. Although your life may become slightly dull if social media isn’t always at your fingertips, it’s better to be safe than sorry. I hope this letter may be food for thought for teenagers who spend hours on social media each day.