State inspection results show many establishments could be violating law and putting customers at risk
A student at a cosmetology school in Chula Vista correctly uses new emery boards on every customer. State inspection data show that failure to throw away dirty items is a common problem at salons. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / Union-Tribune) -
Trina Ricco had part of a pinkie amputated after a cut on the finger became severely infected. Ricco sued the salon where she was injured. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / Union-Tribune)
BEHIND THE STORY
To see if a salon or beauty professional has had any violations, go to uniontrib.com/more/salons.
To identify salons and employees with safety problems, reporters requested inspection data from the California Department of Consumer Affairs' Board of Barbering and Cosmetology.
The data came in 13 text files, which contained details on inspections performed from 1999 to 2006. There were problems with the data, however, which the state acknowledged.
A second data set came in Excel spreadsheets, which contained details on inspections from June 2003 to July 2008. Reporters determined it was complete. It had 220,000-plus violations that inspectors found at salons across the state, including more than 18,000 in San Diego County.
The data had names of salons and employees, license numbers, addresses, state law codes and fine amounts. Reporters merged the codes from state law with a description of the relevant violations to determine what inspectors found.
Reporters examined inspection reports and lawsuit records and interviewed salon owners, salon workers, state officials, state inspectors, doctors, other medical professionals and people who had been injured at salons.
They developed an online search engine, which enables consumers to quickly check the record of salons in the state.
HEALTH AND BEAUTY: BY THE NUMBERS
231,222: Violations statewide
18,471: Local violations
$23,779,929: Fines statewide
$1,784,025: Local fines
$25: Most common fine
August: Most common month for local fines
Thursday: Most common day for local fines
SOURCE: State data from July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2008
Online: To search for violations, go to uniontrib.com/more/salons
Online: To find enforcement actions and other information from the state's Board of Barbering and Cosmetology, go to barbercosmo.ca.gov
U-T Multimedia: To see a video with salon safety tips, go to uniontrib.com/more/nails
BY THE NUMBERS: KINDS OF LICENSES FINED LOCALLY
2,433: Manicurist
1,990: Cosmetologist
226: Barber
206: Esthetician
30: Cosmetology and Barber Apprentices
SOURCE: State data from July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2008
Trina Ricco was getting her acrylic nails done at a mall in El Cajon when the manicurist nicked a cuticle and drew blood. Ricco didn't think much of it as the woman dabbed on a clear solution from what looked like a nail polish bottle.
But the cut on her pinkie became severely infected, landing Ricco, a 57-year-old mother of two, in the intensive care unit. The bone in her finger dissolved, shrinking so much that it looked like she had two thumbs.
Doctors amputated.
“I'm angry this happened – that people can get away with this,” Ricco said, her lips quivering. “I was so oblivious.”
Ricco had no idea workers at the salon, L.A. Nails, had a history of not disinfecting tools and of reusing disposable tools.
Two months after Ricco's manicure, an inspector found 10 violations of state law at the salon during a routine visit. Skin and nail clippings littered a workstation. Employees weren't sanitizing foot baths between customers. The state fined the salon $850.
Ricco sued the salon and won a $750,000 settlement, but she didn't report the injury to the state.
If she had, an investigator would have gone out immediately, said Russ Heimerich, spokesman for the California Department of Consumer Affairs.
“We want people to let us know when they encounter things that are amiss and not just rely on us” to catch problems, Heimerich said.
Violations abound
San Diego County is home to about 3,640 salons – five times the number of local gas stations. But from exclusive spas to discount shops, many are putting customers at risk, a San Diego Union-Tribune analysis of state inspection data shows.
Between July 2003 and June 2008, inspectors cited more than half the local salons for at least one health violation and fined them a total of $1.35 million. The most common problems were failing to throw away dirty items and not storing disinfected tools in clean, covered and labeled containers.
There is nothing that says how often salons must be inspected, and many go without scrutiny for years.
The state's Board of Barbering and Cosmetology currently employs 22 inspectors, who are responsible for scrutinizing 44,921 establishments statewide. That's about one inspector for every 2,000 establishments.
Two inspectors handle all the salons in San Diego County.
Virginia Addis, a state inspector since September, is responsible for about half the salons in the county and all of them in Imperial County. Addis said her workload is about 1,800 salons. That number would need to be reduced to 1,000 if she were to inspect every salon once a year, she said.
Addis has a background in law enforcement and finds her job as an inspector a good fit.
She once suspended a salon's license on the spot, an action reserved for the most severe violations. She pulled the jet covers and screens from a foot spa and “roaches started scurrying out.”
Kevin Flanagan, a spokesman for Consumer Affairs until recently, said inspectors focus on salons with a history of problems.
“We're never going to have enough inspectors to blanket the state,” Flanagan said.
Plus, it has been difficult for consumers to check a salon's safety record.
The state has had a Web site where people could “Look up Violations,” but it included only the relatively few salons that faced license suspension, probation or revocation.
A recent search for L.A. Nails in El Cajon turned up nothing, for example, even though it had numerous violations.
“You're left with the impression that everything is fine,” said Rocky Copley, a lawyer who represented Ricco when she sued the salon.
Kristy Underwood, chief of the Board of Barbering and Cosmetology, said it should have been clear to consumers that just because a salon didn't appear on the site, that didn't mean it hadn't violated the law. Underwood changed the language to “Look up Enforcement Actions” after an interview with the Union-Tribune.
Copley learned about infractions at L.A. Nails when he interviewed the owner. After that, he said, “it was like pulling teeth” to get copies of inspection reports from the state.
“It's public information, and I should have been able to get it through the Public Records Act,” Copley said. “The only way I could was through a . . . subpoena and court order.”
A woman who answered the phone at the state agency also told the Union-Tribune “to subpoena the records” when asked for inspection reports. The newspaper later obtained them quickly from Flanagan, whose job involved dealing with media requests.
Heimerich said if the woman on the phone didn't realize they were public records, she should have.
“That's unacceptable,” Heimerich said. “That's not how you handle the people's business.”
Underwood said she reiterated to her staff what is public information and is confident it won't happen again.
'I speak up right away'
Victoria Kuriger was reclining in a pedicure chair at Vivid Nails, a salon in Eastlake, when her leg began to itch and sting. When she looked down, she was horrified – her leg was red, and blood was coming from small holes in it.
The pedicurist had used a chemical to dissolve callouses on Kuriger's feet but left her leg resting on the soiled towel. The chemical was eating away at her skin, and towel fibers were boring into her leg.
That evening, Kuriger went to the emergency room, where doctors said she had second-and third-degree burns and her wound was infected.
“I can't even tell you how painful it was,” she said.
Kuriger has permanent scars, but the experience hasn't stopped her from getting pedicures. She is just smarter about it now, she said.
“If I feel anything weird, I speak up right away,” Kuriger said. “People feel weird about saying, 'Oh that hurt,'because they don't want to be impolite.”
Vivid Nails is on probation with the state. Between 2004 and 2006, inspectors found 29 infractions, such as contaminated cosmetics.
“That means if we go in and inspect them again and find violations, we can shut them down,” Heimerich said.
Kristy Nguyen, who owns Vivid Nails, said she has taken action. For instance, her employees now dispose of nail buffers between customers.
No one tracks all salon-related injuries, so frequency is only anecdotal. It is also difficult to pinpoint where bacteria that caused an infection came from.
In Ricco's case, her doctor testified that it was “more likely than not” that “her severe Staph infection was the result of her acrylic nail procedure.”
But Phillip Nguyen, whose wife owned L.A. Nails, contends Ricco cut herself carving a turkey and “later on, developed the idea to sue us.” Her manicure was before Thanksgiving 2003.
Phillip Nguyen said he and his wife run clean salons. They lay blame on state inspectors, who he said harass salon workers and treat them like criminals.
“The state board is only worried about the customer; they're never worried about the people who work there,” he said.
Heimerich said the board works with the industry to develop appropriate rules, but it exists to ensure public safety.
“The reason we're out there inspecting is to protect consumers,” he said.
Doctors urge caution
Dr. Alon Garay, who is division chief of orthopedic surgery at Sharp Rees-Stealy and treated Ricco, said hand surgeons have “a great deal of concern” about manicures causing fungal and bacterial infections, and even transmitting viruses such as hepatitis B and HIV.
Garay has seen patients with shrunken fingers, deformed nails and missing tissue and skin. In one case, an infection spread to his patient's heart.
On the day Garay admitted Ricco to the hospital, he was treating another woman with a “super staph” infection likely contracted during a manicure, Garay said. It was resistant to most antibiotics.
Doctors also have concerns about pedicures.
Dr. John Ciccone, who runs Pacific Beach Podiatry, said three or four times a month, patients come in with infections likely contracted during pedicures. Ciccone blamed foot spas, which received national media attention after they were linked to bacterial outbreaks in California.
In San Diego County, 425 salons and 15 workers have been cited in the past five years for not disinfecting foot spas – not just at the bargain spots in strip malls.
At Paradise Point Resort & Spa, where for $90 customers can choose from specialties such as an “Ice Cream” pedicure, inspectors found 24 violations from May 2004 to April 2006, including three for not disinfecting foot spas and keeping logs.
Larry Kaufman, spokesman for the resort, said it bought all-new equipment, including foot spas, and moved into a new space in late 2006. Since then, it has not had any violations, according to state data.
Dr. Donald Triolo, who runs Alvarado Podiatry Center, cautions about fungal infections, which attack nails from the outside and don't need an open wound to fester.
“These salons, boy, they're a breeding ground,” Triolo said. “Some people disinfect tools after using them. Others just throw stuff in a drawer and use it from person to person.”
The state has cited half the salons in this county for tool disinfection problems.
Flanagan advises consumers to use common sense.
“If they saw what they saw in a restaurant, they'd never eat there, but they'll sit down and have a beauty treatment,” Flanagan said. “People really need to be smarter than that.”
SAFETY TIPS
When you go to a salon, take note of conditions that could be unhealthy. Are there dirty towels on counters? Does the foot spa look clean?
Follow your instincts, and don't hesitate to speak up if something is bothering you.
Some tips:
Physicians caution against getting your cuticles pushed down or cut and suggest bringing your own tools.
If you go with the salon's tools, make sure they have been washed with soap and water and immersed in disinfectant. Be certain that disposable items, such as nail files, buffers and emery boards, are not reused.
Remove nail polish after one or two weeks, then wait one or two weeks before reapplying. Dr. Donald Triolo of Alvarado Podiatry Center said polish “creates kind of an incubator effect” for fungal infections. The first sign is white spots on your nail, Triolo said.
Do not get beauty treatments if you have an open sore, broken skin or an infection.
Do not shave or wax your legs within 24 hours of any foot-spa treatment.
Ask to see a logbook for foot spa disinfecting, and ask if the jets and screens were removed during cleaning. Dr. John Ciccone of Pacific Beach Podiatry said the pump and filter can harbor bacteria. “I tell my patients to skip the foot bath,” Ciccone said.
Do not let salons use a razor blade to cut off callouses. It is illegal, and doctors say it can spread blood-borne diseases. Even so, 94 local salons have had violations for razor blades.
Check the Union-Tribune's online database for your salon or beauty professional's violations at uniontrib.com/more/salons. Keep in mind that violations are common and vary in severity. Also on this site are the state's consumer guidelines.
