Styling, coloring and cutting are all services that salons have offered to the customers.
Some might have their own private shop while others will work as a team of professional employees who are prepared to help. It doesn’t matter too much on the location because almost half of all the hairstylists are self-employed.
The Trade
Most professional hairdressers will learn the trade from barbering and cosmetology schools. After they have completed the school, the hairdresser will have to maintain their licensing that has been issued by the state. The only exception is the shampooers who do not have a requirement to have a formal training. Almost no one associates hairdressing with exposure to asbestos levels, but it does happen. Many times workers will handle tools that heat up, and they contain asbestos-based insulation as a result. When you use a product like this day in and day out, it increases your risk that you would develop one of these diseases.
Products and the Different Locations
You have several different tools that hairdressers have worked with daily. For example, you have hood-style hair dryers and handheld hair dryers. Like with some of the other asbestos-based products, the hair dryers might contain asbestos-based products, which exist as a way of protecting the internal components. In addition, this mineral became so popular because of how it helped to keep things from overheating or catching on fire.
How Many Hair Dryers?
It is guessed that somewhere around five million handheld hair dryers had asbestos-insulation within them at one point. These dryers came from a variety of manufacturers like Remington and Conair. In fact, they made up about 90 percent of the annual domestic hairdryer sales. In fact, based on a study that the US Consumer Product Safety Commision conducted way back from 1979, researchers discovered how 11 of the major hair dryer brands contained a dangerous level of asbestos-based products within them. All of the manufacturers issued a return policy, and they had a voluntary refund. They discontinued the production of these hair dryers.
Experts have also found how the hood-style dryers from the brands like Suter Avante and La Reine also had asbestos-containing products. Most of the hooded hair dryers had a simple layer of insulation in it. It also included the heating element. With some of the brands, however, used pure chrysotile asbestos, which was in full support of the heating element. At the same time, it was quite dangerous.
Exposure in the Occupation
Back in 1979, it was ruled that using asbestos-based fibers in hair dryers was risky to the health of people. The use that an individual has from occasional use is a little less risky than what it is to hairdressers because of how they work with it all day. When it gets used frequently, this puts the people at an increased risk of getting exposed to one of these products. If a hairdresser finds that they have developed mesothelioma, it is likely that they had worked with a dryer that contained this hazardous substance. They may have also worked with a dryer that can’t be identified.
Because manufacturers no longer produce these types of hair dryers, people have less risk to exposure from it. However, you should remain ever-vigilant against the dangers that come from older equipment because it could still even be used today. In fact, based on a survey from 2006, researchers learned how around 25 percent of the hood-style hair dryers from the United Kingdom had older models, and they contained asbestos-based products. Since many of the manufacturers that have supplied the United Kingdom with hair dryers also supply the United States, you can bet that the risk exists in the United States too.
Scientific Research
A number of studies have been done that uncovered how the increase in cancer among the hair stylists likely had something to do with the asbestos-based products in some of the hairdryers. In a scientific review where over 200 studies were looked at, they found how there was a 30 percent rise in the number of cases of lung cancer for hairstylists.
Genevieve Gunderson, one of the residents from California, filed a lawsuit for asbestos-related exposure back at the beginning of the 2000s. They found how she had experienced secondhand exposure as her husband washed his clothing. The jury in San Francisco who had heard her case gave her $11.5 million because of medical expenses, lost income and for her suffering.
In a separate lawsuit, Ardyce Riggs got the disease in what she believes was take-home exposure from her husband who does hairdressing work. Riggs filed a lawsuit back in 2012, and the verdict on this lawsuit is still pending. If you or someone you love has been injured because of asbestos-related diseases, you could be entitled to some compensation.
