Beauty salon customers may take home more than perfectly polished nails after a manicure and pedicure as doctors warn women of the dangers of infections from improper sterilisation of nail equipment.
Numerous salons across the country have been warned or closed by authorities for not abiding by health and safety regulations and doctors say women need to be more knowledgeable and proactive when it comes to salon safety if they want to avoid bacterial, fungal or viral infections.
A public health and preventative medicine specialist said that using non-sterilised nail tools and foot baths may inadvertently lead to exposure to fungus, hepatitis B and C, and a number of different infections.
“The most worrying health risk at a nail salon is injuries that lead to infection. Nail tools are being used on more than one customer and, if not properly disinfected and sterilised, it might get contaminated with other customer’s blood when wounds or cuts occur during the treatment,” said Dr Yusra Abo Hamed.
“If the customer is infected with any of blood-borne infections, like hepatitis B, hepatitis C, it might transfer easily to another customer.
“The viruses can enter through a small cut or scratch in the skin when an infected tool is used. Without proper disinfection, these infectious agents may stay active for … up to two weeks.”
Read more: Salon user learnt peril of pedicure the hard way
Poor tool hygiene can also lead to fungal infections, she said.
“To stop spreading fungal infection in salons, the first thing that should be done is to ask the staff about the steps they use to disinfect and sterilise the tools and preferably see them implement it.
“And people who think they may have a fungal infection need to get their conditions treated by a specialist.”
Maryam Al Ali is in an ideal position to comment on hygiene in salons as she is both a chief nursing officer and owner of Melody nail salon in Fujairah. She also stressed the importance of sterilising.
“Salons should have a plan to implement a hospital-grade protocol for disinfecting and sterilising the used tools and equipment,” she said.
“I see many beauty salons that poorly disinfect their tools and sometimes they don’t, which leaves the client at risk of catching a skin or nail infection.”
At her salon, Ms Al Ali said they don’t offer services to clients who have skin problems or nail infections.
“We apologise to clients who suffer from infections and advise them to come back after recovery and soon we will start offering personal nail tools to be purchased and kept by clients,” she said.
Read more: Nearly 20,000 warnings for unhygienic practices at beauty salons
Current health regulations in the UAE stipulate that nail tools should be cleaned with a brush, soap and warm water then dipped in disinfectant and placed in an “autoclave”, a steam sterilising device.
“Limiting the disinfecting process to only wiping tools with disinfectant is not enough and can cause infections,” said Dr Abo Hamed, who suggested taking your own tools to the salon or even using disposable equipment.
A dermatologist said she receives many patients with nail or toenail infections and they don’t realise that it could be the salon that is behind their infection.
“We can’t say it’s a phenomenon but it’s something every woman should be aware of, and precautions should be taken,” said Dr Farah Al Ansari.
“Although it’s hard to determine from where the patient got the infection, we ask about their daily routine and many become surprised to know that beauty centres can be one of the options.”
Changes to the colour of the nail, pain, tenderness and swelling around the infected area can be signs of a nail infection, Dr Al Ansari added.
Paronychia is the most common nail infection that can be transmitted during a mani and pedi, along with fungal infections, warts, MRSA and Mycobacterium fortuitum.
The owner of Ivy Nail Spa in Dubai said her staff adhere to health and safety rules and also ensure customers are free from infection.
Read more: Safety in the salon - does your salon follow proper hygiene rules?
“We ask them if they have health issues that might affect their skin or nails and we do their nails very carefully and slowly, to avoid cutting of skin or cuticles,” said Ivy Maranan.
“Staff must wash and disinfect their hands and their tools before they touch the client, as well as wash the hands and feet of the client, to avoid contamination and transmitting infections.”
Health inspectors have a hard time as they have no specific way on the spot of determining if equipment is sterile or not but officials say they look at the overall condition of the salon.
“We mainly check the salon licence, cleanliness of the place, availability of the sterilising devices and disinfectant solution, the staff occupational health cards and personal hygiene along with product expiry dates,” said Fatima Al Mukasah, head of public health department at Fujairah Municipality.
Health and safety is also taken seriously at Dubai Municipality, which announced in July plans to start a health supervisor training programme for 3,600 salon and beauty centre workers. The idea came about after inspectors found a lack of awareness of the causes of transmission of infectious diseases and lack of knowledge on health and safety when inspecting salons.
In Abu Dhabi in August, 31 offences were registered and 42 warnings were issued to beauty parlours and hair salons in Mussaffah alone over poor hygiene.
Abu Dhabi Municipality said that the cases followed 541 inspection visits and that in April seven beauty parlours in Abu Dhabi were referred to court for falling short on health standards.
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Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
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The biog
Hometown: Cairo
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Favourite TV series: The Handmaid’s Tale, Black Mirror
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Gender equality in the workplace still 200 years away
It will take centuries to achieve gender parity in workplaces around the globe, according to a December report from the World Economic Forum.
The WEF study said there had been some improvements in wage equality in 2018 compared to 2017, when the global gender gap widened for the first time in a decade.
But it warned that these were offset by declining representation of women in politics, coupled with greater inequality in their access to health and education.
At current rates, the global gender gap across a range of areas will not close for another 108 years, while it is expected to take 202 years to close the workplace gap, WEF found.
The Geneva-based organisation's annual report tracked disparities between the sexes in 149 countries across four areas: education, health, economic opportunity and political empowerment.
After years of advances in education, health and political representation, women registered setbacks in all three areas this year, WEF said.
Only in the area of economic opportunity did the gender gap narrow somewhat, although there is not much to celebrate, with the global wage gap narrowing to nearly 51 per cent.
And the number of women in leadership roles has risen to 34 per cent globally, WEF said.
At the same time, the report showed there are now proportionately fewer women than men participating in the workforce, suggesting that automation is having a disproportionate impact on jobs traditionally performed by women.
And women are significantly under-represented in growing areas of employment that require science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills, WEF said.
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