It used to be when someone referenced “shock TV” you expected Jerry Springer-esque baby-daddy drama… or perhaps two woman cat-fighting while males salaciously leered, hoping for ripped clothing. Now, you can find “shock TV” standards on pretty much any Dr. Oz episode. There was the one where he poured acetone into a styrofoam cup and hollered while the cup dramatically melted–and applied the false logic that acetone does the same thing to your nails. Neverminding the fact that styrofoam is mostly air, and the styrofoam is closely related chemically to the acetone. It would have been about the same as if you poured water all over cotton candy. Same process.

And then there’s the one where he claimed that UV nail lamps cause cancer. He compared them to suntanning beds, entirely ignoring the fact that nail lamp bulbs are 9 watts, not the 300 watts of most tanning bed lamps. Your refrigerator is much brighter at 25 watts. Or the fact that the UV light emitted is a very narrow band specific to the photo-initiators in the gel products and not the full spectrum of UV light from say..the sun!

Nail techs, salon owners, UV light manufacturers and industry writers have deluged the studio, his staff and him personally with letters, emails and twitter posts. But they are not interested in portraying facts…only receiving ratings drummed up by scaring women during sweeps week.

Below is a link to an article written by Doug Schoon who has been involved in more than one discussion about the safety of UV nail lamps and the studies that have been done.