"The Fight to Rid Black Women's Hair Salons of Toxic Chemicals"

"Chemicals in hair relaxers and other products can have dangerous side effects—especially for salon workers. But a number of groups are trying to change that."

"When Teni Adewumi surveyed African-American salon workers in Inglewood, California, she kept seeing the same health concerns over and over: Asthma. Dermatitis. Hair loss. Uterine fibroids. Miscarriage. Veteran stylists told her they experienced symptoms when they applied relaxers and other chemical hair straighteners, and they now preferred working with natural styles. But many didn’t know that the products they used could be making them sick.

Adewumi, a graduate student at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, works to close that knowledge gap as the environmental justice program coordinator at the California nonprofit Black Women for Wellness. In salons across Inglewood and South Los Angeles, she helps train stylists in safe products and practices, from ventilation and personal protective equipment to ergonomics and label comprehension. But her work is also part of a nationwide effort to make beauty salons safer for the people—mostly women—who work in them.

That starts with research. Epidemiological studies dating back to the 1980s have found that hair stylists are at risk for a range of chronic occupational health conditions, including skin and respiratory diseases and adverse reproductive outcomes. Certain toxic chemicals found in hair glues and straighteners, such as formaldehyde, styrene, and trichloroethylene, have been linked to cancer, liver damage, and dermatitis."

Vicky Gan reports for CityLab November 6, 2015.