Gel manicures are no strangers to controversy. The exposure to UV light that comes with curing gel polish has long sparked skin cancer concerns, though studies have largely concluded that the risk is low. Some of the ingredients in gel polishes are known to be skin sensitizers, which, if absorbed into the skin, may cause contact dermatitis or, over time, a type of allergic reaction called delayed hypersensitivity reaction.
And this week, the European Union raised an apparent new concern. On September 1, it announced a ban on gel polishes containing a specific ingredient—trimethylbenzoyl diphenylphosphine oxide (TPO)—after classifying it “carcinogenic, mutagenic, or toxic for reproduction.” Effective immediately, gel polishes with TPO will no longer be legal to sell to consumers or use in salons across the EU.
Almost instantaneously, headlines inaccurately stating that Europe had banned all gel manicures popped up, quickly followed by fact-free fearmongering on social media. Some TikTok users have claimed, also inaccurately, that gel nail polishes in general contain “toxins” that are “causing infertility.” Others have suggested the US is derelict for not banning TPO. None of these things are true in the cut-and-dry sense, but the message has clearly instilled some fear of gel formulas on the internet. Before you decide to swear off gel manicures for good, you may want to understand how the EU reached its decision and how you can still safely proceed with your biweekly appointment should you so choose (spoiler alert: you likely don’t need to change a thing).
Meet the experts
To be perfectly clear, gel nail polishes and manicures themselves have not been banned outright in the EU—just trimethylbenzoyl diphenylphosphine oxide. Otherwise known as TPO, it’s a photoinitiator, aka a type of compound that turns liquids into solids when it absorbs energy from light. It’s commonly used in gel nail polishes because of its curing efficiency and resistance to yellowing, according to cosmetic chemist Kelly Dobos.
The EU first identified TPO as a substance of concern in the spring of 2024, Dobos says, and the toxicity data that raised those red flags primarily comes from animal feeding studies. Shyamali Singhal, MD, a board-certified surgical oncologist and medical director of the cancer program at El Camino Health in Mountain View, California, noted this as well. “Studies in animals—not humans—show that ingesting high concentrations of TPO leads to fertility issues,” she says.
The experts we spoke to believe it’s unlikely that a harmful concentration of TPO would ever get into the bloodstream when used as intended.
In other words, the EU determined that TPO should be deemed “carcinogenic, mutagenic, or toxic for reproduction” based on animals that ingested the ingredient in high concentrations. Dobos believes the EU is taking a hazard-based approach instead of a risk-based approach, which, in so many words, means she thinks the choice might have been made without considering how people actually use gel nail polish. She can explain a little further: “A risk-based method helps regulators decide if a product is truly unsafe in the way it’s used, allowing for more nuanced decisions that protect public health while still allowing useful products on the market.” A hazard-based approach, on the other hand, looks at whether a substance could be dangerous based on its properties regardless of how people actually use it. “So even if there’s little or no real-world exposure, ingredients might still be banned,” Dobos says.
