My job and my seven miscarriages: Nail salon workers need more protections now

Ten years ago, I had my first miscarriage.

At the time, I was working as a nail technician in Bayside, Queens, where day after day, I was exposed to chemicals like toluene and formaldehyde. I remember looking at a bottle of base coat and noticing a warning message about how prolonged exposure could lead to birth defects. It was absolutely terrifying.

Before I moved to New York City from Nepal, a relative of mine who lived in the United States told me that for immigrants like me, working in a nail salon was the best choice. So I worked in salons for years, sometimes making as little as $25 per day. It was never enough, but I kept working because I wanted to survive and eventually start a family.

After my first miscarriage, my husband and I kept trying. But as long as I worked in nail salons, breathing in the fumes from nail polish, glues and hardeners, we kept facing tragedy. Since 2012, I’ve had seven miscarriages.

I knew I wasn’t alone. During the years I worked as a nail technician, I spoke to many women who also struggled to get pregnant, while others saw their children grow up with developmental challenges. These were not easy conversations to have. Like in my community in Nepal, the women I spoke to in America felt pressure to hide their pain and suffer in silence — sometimes out of shame, sometimes out of fear for what would happen if they spoke up.

But eventually, learning about how widespread these issues are inspired me to leave the nail salon industry and become an organizer with Adhikaar, a women-led organization building power among our city’s nail salon workers. Through that work, I’ve met dozens of women who share my story and who also face other health conditions like severe allergies, dizziness, thyroid issues, respiratory problems, mental health challenges and cancer.

Every nail salon technician in New York deserves to have a safe and healthy working environment, free from unnecessary exposure to toxic chemicals.

In recent years, nail technicians have been organizing for safe, healthy and sustainable workplaces — and we’ve made significant progress. We’ve won a Nail Salon Workers Bill of Rights and an end to the subminimum wage of nail technicians. In 2016, we won health and safety standards requiring nail salons to install ventilation systems that would protect us from breathing in toxic chemicals all day.

But as we’ve continued to fight to improve the nail salon industry, our state government has been all too willing to maintain the status quo. Just last month, the Hochul administration shamefully delayed implementation of the new ventilation standards — for the second time. As a result of this delay, more nail salon workers throughout New York State will face the dangerous repercussions of inhaling toxic chemicals.

This is completely unacceptable, and highlights the urgent need for nail salon workers to have their voices heard.

Our nail salon industry remains in a state of crisis. A recent report from Cornell University found that New York nail salon workers continue to endure dangerous working conditions, long hours, discrimination and exploitation. The industry is trapped in a race to the bottom, driven by fierce competition, low prices and owners who cut corners on wage and health standards in order to make a profit.

Fixing New York’s nail salons requires a solution that addresses the industry as a whole. That’s why we are demanding state lawmakers pass a new bill, the Nail Salon Minimum Standards Council Act, which would give workers a formal voice on the job to create baseline standards and fair pricing rules. When people like me and my former colleagues have a seat at the table and can bring their day-to-day experiences to those discussions, we can make the changes we know we need.

I have faith that we will win this fight and transform New York’s nail salons into places where everyone — workers, customers and owners — can thrive. As an organizer, I’ve learned that even when times are hard, you need to keep believing and persevering.

My husband and I never gave up our belief that we would have a child someday. Two years ago, after escaping the toxic environment of the nail salon, I gave birth to a little boy named Supreme. Now, every day when I come home, he gives me the energy and love I need to keep up our fight. He reminds me to never give up, and one day I know I’ll be able to tell him the story of how we fought for justice and won.

Dash is a former nail salon technician now working as a senior organizer for Adhikhaar.