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American Morning
New Report Finds Pedicures May Not Always Be Best Thing For Your Bare Toes
Aired May 02, 2002 - 08:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Ah, springtime, the time of year when lots of women are getting their toes ready to slap on a pair of sandals. Watch out, ladies. There may be a bacteria among us. Right. A new report out today found those relaxing and therapeutic pedicures women love may not always be the best thing for your bare toes.
CNN Elizabeth Cohen has the naked truth.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What's the worst thing a pedicure could do to you? This, boils on the legs from bacteria called fortuatum.
um We found a large outbreak of 110 individuals affected with this microbacterial infection of their legs, and we traced it to a series of contaminated whirlpool footbaths that were presen in a single nail salon in Santa Cruz County in northern California.
COHEN: The women took antibiotics and the infections went away.
DR. KEVIN WINTHROP, CDC: After that, these infections can be quite scarring and disfiguring. And I know some women are choosing to have some plastic surgery or some sort of corrective surgery done.
COHEN: So how common is this? The Centers for Disease Control isn't sure, but Dr. Wintrop says he's heard of another 12 to 15 cases from other salons in the United States.
Here's how these infections happen. The clients were sitting in a chair like this one with their feet in the tub, and the salon in California hadn't cleaned out this screen for about a year. So back here, instead of it being clean like this one, hair and skin and toenailss had accumulated, and bacteria was growing. And every time the water swirled around, bacteria swirled around with it.
WINTHROP: In fact, there was enough hair there, really, you could have made a small toupee out of it.
COHEN: Now don't get too scared, responsible salons like Dobell (ph) in Atlanta, clean and sanitize their pools and tubs before and after each client, and they're screened twice a week. uf They're some places that clean it not even once a year.
uf Wow. That's pretty disgusting, it really is.
COHEN: And that's why here at the International School of Skin and Nail Care in Atlanta, they drum it into their students' head.
uf Sanitize, sanitize, sanitize.
COHEN: Your feet are in their hands.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Thanks for that report, Elizabeth Cohen.
So what should someone look for in a nail salon to make sure it doesn't have this bacteria?
COHEN: Well, I'm still sort of skeeved out. What you need to look for, this problem was caused by something very specific, as you saw in the story. It was caused by these screens not being cleaned. So you need to ask people, hey, there's this screen here. How often do you clean it? If they say, oh, we cleaned it last year, you need to head out of that salon.
Another thing that you can do, if you just want to the avoid the problem altogether, you can get a pedicure where they use these free- standing baths. You can see them here. They don't have screens, or that same kind of whirlpool action, and they can actually take those tubs to the sink and clean it out. So that's one thing you can do.
Another thing you can do, is when they use the metal implements on you, you can say, do you sanitize these between each customer? If they use an emory board that cannot be sanitized, you can say to them, am I the first person you used this emory board on, or did you use it on the lady next to me and now you are using it on me?
So there are certain questions. You need to take this into your own hands, so to speak. I've not even going to ask you what sort of metal implements they use on you, having never had a pedicure.
COHEN: You need to get a pedicure, right?
COOPER: I really don't think I do, especially not after your report.
Are there any regulations for these salons? I mean, in New York, they seem to be on just about every corner. You can smell them a mile away.
COHEN: It's absolutely true. I hope you can't smell them.
COOPER: You can.
COHEN: In California, because this is where the outbreak happened, after it happened, they passed a regulation that said that they need to clean those screens every day. So California, at least by the letter of the law, has allegedly taken care of the problem. Other states are thinking about following suit. And I've been told that the folks who make those chairs are trying to think of a better design. I mean, it's not the best design in the world to have a screen that needs to be unscrewed and needs to cleaned like that. I mean, there might be a better way of doing it.
COOPER: All right, thanks very much, Elizabeth Cohen.
COHEN: You're welcome.
COOPER: All right.
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