Nail salon ventilation needs assessment survey: A precursor for the development of an educational intervention

Background: The nail technician workforce in the U.S. is composed primarily of Asian immigrants, often ethnically Vietnamese, that experience serious health concerns and have self-reported symptoms of respiratory irritation based on chemical exposures and poor air quality in the workplace.  Instances of increased exposure have been documented in cases where inadequate ventilation of the workplace is experienced.  Engineering controls like local exhaust ventilation (LEV) systems are often recommended by federal, state and local agencies to control workplace chemical exposures, yet few nail salons employ such machines to improve air quality for unclear reasons. Objective: Assess the current knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors surrounding nail salon LEV systems, in order to inform the development of an educational intervention plan that best reflects the actual, or perceived, difficulties surrounding the implementation of LEV systems in nail salons. Methods: Researchers, whom fluently speak and write Vietnamese, administered a semi-structured open-ended interview through convenience sampling of nail salon owners within Orange and Los Angeles Counties, Calif. Responses are transcribed, coded and evaluated for themes from multiple domains of interest. Results: Preliminary results suggest nail salon owners that use general ventilation methods perceive LEV systems as unnecessary to business operations due to a lack of regulatory requirement.  Concerns of LEV system size and noise level were identified as barriers to implementation. Further analysis will evaluate whether cost of systems is influential to owner attitudes. Conclusions: An LEV intervention strategy must recognize the limited amount of space and noise that are feasible in the nail salon environment, and systems that meet these requirements must be identified and evaluated.  An informed framework for an educational intervention plan, using the general themes of the needs assessment survey, will be discussed.