The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential exposure of chemicals from the working environment of nail shops and determine health-related symptoms from the nail shop workers by self-reporting questionnaire. A total of 54 nail shop workers from 15 different locations were asked to conduct a survey concerning their working environment. VOCs (including toluene and nine other substances) and aldehyde(including formaldehyde and four other substances) detected. We studied on the relationship between the environmental concentration of chemical substances and the self-reported symptoms of nail shop workers. There was a significant relationship between the neck pain and substances such as 2- propanol, benzene, toluene, n-buthylacetate, ethylbenzene, and xylene (p<0.01). Furthermore, symptoms in the nose irritation, neck irritation and recurrent coughs had significant relationship with benzene (p<0.05), whereas, toluene showed significant relationship with neck irritation and symptoms such as coughs and fatigue (p<0.05).

This paper has attempted to find out the factors that have an influence on the consciousness of the release of hazardous materials into the air in a nail shop. For this, the concentrations of organic solvents in the air in 10 nail shop(31 employees) in 'S' District of Seoul have been measured. Furthermore, a questionnaire survey was conducted from January 18 to May 18, 2008. Most subjects were female with mean age of 25.61 years - 25 or younger: 19 (61.3%), older than 25 : 12 (38.7%). At the breathing height for employees in a nail shop, the concentrations of organic solvents were the highest (16.61ppm), followed by ethyl acetate 1.23ppm, butyl acetate 0.40ppm, toluene 0.27ppm, n-hexane 0.25ppm and isopropyl alcohol 0.21ppm. With regard to employees' consciousness symptoms (frequent fatigue' 100%, 'headache' 90.3%, 'nasal irritation' 77.4%, 'irritation in eyes' 71.0%, 'score throat' 64.5% and 'coughing' 51.6%), statistically significant difference has been observed (p<0.01). In particular, this paper has been aimed to suggest ground data for revision of the regulations that are related with the indoor air quality of nail shop and the guidelines for employees' health.