Heavy Metal Contamination of Popular Nail Polishes in Iran

Background: Toxic and hazardous heavy metals like arsenic, lead, mercury, zinc, chromium and iron are found in a variety of personal care products, e.g. lipstick, whitening toothpaste, eyeliner and nail color. The nails absorb the pigments of nail polishes and vaporized or soluble metals can easily pass it. The goal of this survey was to assess whether the different colors of nail polishes comply with maximum concentrations of heavy metals in the EPA’s guidelines. Methods: 150 samples of different popular brands of nail polishes in 13 colors (yellow, beige, silver, pink, white, violet, brown, golden, green, black, colorless, red and blue) were randomly purchased from beauty shops in Tehran City, Iran, in 2014. Microwave digestion EPA method 3051 was used by a microwave oven to determine the amount of 5 heavy metals; Nickel, Chromium, Lead, Arsenic and Cadmium. One-way ANOVA, Two-way ANOVA, hierarchical cluster, and principal component analyses were applied by Statistica 7.0 software. Results: The concentrations of chrome, lead, nickel and arsenic showed significant differences between the colors (p < 0.05). In all studied samples, the level of cadmium was beyond the safe maximum permissible limit (MPS), but no significance difference in the cadmium content was identified. Conclusion: Due to the high concentrations of toxic metals in many brands of nail polishes, meticulous quality control is recommended for these beauty products.