Why do men dread nail polish smell?
I certainly don’t “dread” the smell. For me it just misses smelling good. What I dread is what I know that the solvents do to you when you breathe them in. Same for most nail polish remover. The aromatic hydrocarbons are carcinogenic and damaging to your organs. They are organic solvents. Your body is organic. Yes, that’s right. Breathe enough of it in and you literally will dissolve your lungs, liver and kidneys. The evaporating solvents are what give nail polilsh the strong odor. So the smart people are going outside to do their nails. Ethylene glycol methyl ether, a solvent used in nail polish, may raise the risk of breast or ovarian cancer among women taking hormone treatments. (1) Toluene (nail polish solvent) – “Chronic or frequent inhalation of toluene over long time periods leads to irreversible brain damage.” (2) Toluene is also used to break down red blood cells to extract hemoglobin in biochemistry experiments but I don’t want my hemoglobin extracted in my veins, thank you.
