Beauty Extraction

Why do I have to have extraction?

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is very clear on this. You are legally required to reduce the risk of exposure to harmful fumes and dusts in the work place – for everyone in that environment.

This is mainly detailed in The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health, more commonly known as COSHH.

COSHH states you legally have to provide exposure controls to protect not only your employees but also ANY members of the public who may be exposed, as well as the wider environment.

Basically, you have to make sure that anything in the workplace that your staff or customers breath in won’t make them ill. If it will make them ill, you have to put something in place that will either remove or reduce what they are breathing in to reduce the risk of it making them ill.

This is a vital stipulation for businesses that service the general public, such as salons, beauticians, nail bars, spray tanning and many more cosmetic and beauty treatments. Many of these treatments can produce even small levels of harmful dusts and fumes.

Even if you are working as a lone technician and see customers in your home or their homes, you have a legal responsibility to protect them.

Why are these treatments dangerous?

Let’s look at a few of the common cosmetic products that are often used in beauty treatments and the chemicals they contain. In fact, most products used in beauty treatments have hazard warnings on them that say “Harmful if Inhaled” and “Use in well-ventilated areas”.

These warnings are not merely there to protect the manufactures interest, they are there because there is a proven risk to people’s health. It might be very small but the risk increases the more you use.

But I don’t use much

No, you may not use much for each client but these chemicals build up over time in the atmosphere and in your body – lungs and skin cells. Each time you use it you absorb a little more of the airborne fumes. We refer to this as Repeated Exposure. This is what does the damage.

All the above is before I have even mentioned dust.

What about dust?

Dust can be just as dangerous as fumes. As an example, the process of filing false nails (either manually or via a tool such as a Dremel) will create a lot of dust. This dust can be made up of Acrylic from the nails, Dried Glue or Nail Polish particles and even Human Skin.

Not only is it unsightly on your equipment, work station, your clothes and potentially your customers – it is also bad for your health. Dust that gets into your nose and throat can irritate these areas and cause allergic reactions, coughing, sneezing and other discomforts – we call these Inhalable Dust.

However, the real danger is the dust you can’t see. The human eye can see down to around 30 microns (Human hair is around 100 microns in thickness), but the vast majority of dust is much smaller than this. It’s small enough, in fact, to pass into the Bronchi and Bronchioles of your lungs and affect the Alveoli – the parts of your lungs that let air pass into your bloodstream.

This means they are small enough (less than 10 microns) to get in to the vital workings of your lungs and once they are there (pause for dramatic effect), they don’t come out. We call these dusts Respirable Dusts.

Dusts inhaled in the work place has been directly linked to the steady increase of occupational asthma, damage to lung tissue, masses in the lungs and worse.

Check out our Dust Extraction page for more info on dusts.

What do I do?

Luckily it is actually very easy to protect yourself and your clients – without destroying your bank balance. Firstly, make sure the working area is as open, spacious and as well ventilated as it can be. Open windows, avoid confined spaces and, you guessed it, purchase an extraction system.

Where do I get one and Which one do I need?

Well…… funny you should ask, we happen to have the perfect Beauty Fume and Dust Extractors for protecting you and your customers from the nasties in the air that beauty treatments can produce.

We have well-priced products that are HSE and COSHH compliant and will remove the harmful dusts, fumes and vapours from the air in your salon and working place. There are some links below to the ideal products and we are always on hand to talk it through with you, answer any questions and help you get the right product for you. You can also see our upcoming blog post detailing the units we recommend.

Will they handle the dust?

Yes, they will. HEPA Particulate filters in our units will remove 99.997% of the dust in the air down to 0.3 microns (remember a human hair is around 100 microns). Some of our unit options don’t include a HEPA Particulate filters but still have a highly effective F8 VEE Pleat Dust Filter more than capable of protecting you and your clients.

What do I do?

Our SalonAir and Pure Beauty ranges work by using filters to clean the harmful dusts and fumes (smells) from the air. The cleaned air is then returned back into the work area. We refer to this as a filtered or recirculating extractor.

In the simplest terms, these types of extractors are a fan in a box with filters and a capture device – usually an arm or down draft tray (like our File-O-Way II).

The fan in the box sucks air through the arm or down draft tray with enough volume and force to “capture” the dust and fumes and draw it through the filters. It is important though to know that these systems have an effective range. The closer the capture arm is to the job making the dust and fumes the better it works.

There are two types of main filters. The dust filter and the carbon filters. The dust filters – regardless of what grade they are – work like a sieve. They are made of lots and lots of interwoven fibre’s which catch the dust particles in the air, keeping them locked in the filter while the air passes through.

The carbon filters work like a sponge. They “soak” up the nasty smells and fumes in the air. Each piece of Carbon in the filters have a massive surface area compared to their size, so they are able to “soak” up a lot of fume.

Filters do become full over time. The dust filters will clog up and will need changing periodically and the carbon filters (like a sponge under a running tap) will reach a point where they can soak up no more.

At this point, the filters will need to be changed.

The cleaned air is then blown out the other end of the unit into the workplace.

Summary

It is vital to make sure you know your legal responsibilities in the work place. It is also important to understand that the work place is any place you perform your job – be it a professional Salon, your home or even you customers home.

You legally have to know the hazards the jobs and products you do and use can pose to yourself, your staff and any members of the public that may be affected, such as customers.

You are also legally required to make sure you are properly protecting yourself, your staff and you customers in the work place. Make sure you know the best way to do this to ensure that a) you meet the legal requirements and b) you don’t waste money on ineffective control products.