Norwich — Brenda Stone, a regular customer of Nail & Spa Connection on Town Street, picked out a vivid pink polish from scores of shades displayed on a wall rack and sat down at a pedicure chair, immersing her feet in a swirling warm bath.

“I know the business, and if there was something wishy-washy, I wouldn’t be here,” said Stone, a Griswold resident who owns a hair salon. “The owner here exudes a good presence. She has a good standard.”

As Stone treated her feet to some pampering one day last week, Margarita Mogollon, registered sanitarian with Uncas Health District, was finishing up an annual inspection of the business. Over about 45 minutes, as salon owner Trang Ly looked on, Mogollon opened drawers at each nail technician station to look for used buffing blocks, examined acetone bottles for labels, made sure metal tips for electric files were soaking in alcohol, tested the temperature of the hot water in the hand sink and checked the private waxing room for wooden sticks used in the hair removal process being reused, a violation of the local health ordinance.

“She has passed her inspection,” said Mogollon, who conducts annual inspections at each of the 40 or so nail salons in the eight-town region covered by Uncas Health District. The district includes Bozrah, Griswold, Lisbon, Montville, Norwich, Salem, Sprague, and Voluntown.

Ly, a native of Vietnam who opened the salon eight years ago, said she felt confident and relaxed as Mogollon scrutinized all the nooks and crannies of her business. On the wall next to the counter where customers check in for appointments and pay for services, she has hung her current license from Uncas alongside the state of Massachusetts nail technician license she earned before she opened her business, even though Connecticut doesn’t require it.

“We try to keep everything nice and clean,” she said. “I tell my technicians what they need to do, and that they need to do everything by the book.”

Since local health districts around the state began conducting unannounced inspections of salons annually in 2009, standards and oversight of the growing numbers of these small businesses, often run and staffed by immigrants with limited English skills, has become stricter and more routine, said Patrick McCormack, director of health at Uncas.

Recent national news articles have highlighted exploitation of salon workers, problems with chemical exposures and illegal housing of technicians in tiny backrooms in the New York City area, among other problems. While this has brought attention to a facet of local commerce largely overlooked by many — except those who have incorporated regular manicures and pedicures into their beauty regimens — Uncas and other health departments in Connecticut have become well acquainted with the world of nail salons.

“When we first started doing this, we didn’t know what we were walking into,” said McCormack. “We were learning as we went.”

The state law requiring local health department inspections of nail salons doesn’t specify the sanitary standards the departments should follow, said William Gerrish, spokesman for the state Department of Public Health. Each salon is required to obtain a license annually from the local health department at a cost of $100. But, unlike in some states including Massachusetts, individual technicians are not required to hold licenses. A bill requiring technician licensing took effect in Connecticut in 2000, Gerrish said, but after no funding was provided to implement the program, the law was repealed in 2001.

McCormack said that since Uncas began its inspections, sanitarians have had to learn about Credo Blades – a tool used for pedicures – backflow issues that can plague foot baths and nail dust brushes, among other seemingly obscure topics. During several of the very first inspections in 2009, he said, sanitarians found salons applying “permanent makeup,” a tattoo-like process not allowed with a nail salon license, along with masseuses operating without proper licenses, poor ventilation and hazardous odors and illegal apartments for workers in back rooms.

“We worked with the building inspector, and those problems have largely been eliminated,” he said of the ventilation and illegal housing problems.

Over the next couple of years, many health departments including Uncas developed local ordinances setting sanitary standards for nail salons. McCormack said the standards in the Uncas district nearly match those set by the Ledge Light Health District, which covers East Lyme, Groton, Ledyard, New London and Waterford, and the Northeast District Department of Health, which covers the northeast corner.

“Our biggest concern is any blood-borne pathogens, and preventing bacteria growth on items used on customers,” he said. “We focus on the issues that are immediate public health concerns, the ones that could make someone sick.”

“Critical violations” are cited whenever a salon is found to be reusing equipment such as files and buffing blocks more than once, because cuticles can sometimes bleed during manicures. To further prevent the spread of contagious diseases, salons are required to cover waxing tables with disposable sheets, and wash towels in hot water after each use. Sanitarians also check that salons are using cleaning products containing the correct mix of bleach and water and disinfecting jets on pedicure baths nightly, and will call the fire marshal if chemicals are improperly stored.

Mogollon said about one-quarter of salons fail their initial annual inspection. They are given two weeks to correct violations before a reinspection. If they fail a second time, the salon would be forced to close for a period of time, a fate salon owners work hard to avoid in the highly competitive business.

“We’ve never had to close one,” Mogollon said.

Reusing equipment intended for single use is the most common violation, she added.

Along with the inspections, sanitarians also provide nail salon owners with information sheets about how to clean equipment properly, the types of cleaning and disinfection products to use and other topics in several languages. Overall, McCormack said, the health district tries to work with salon owners to improve their businesses and maintain high sanitary standards.

“For many of them, it’s their first attempt at owning a business, and they’ve spent their life savings and taken out bank loans to open these places,” he said. “I hope salon owners feel that we’re supportive and that if they have a problem or question they can ask us. We want them to do well, because when they’re doing well they can afford to buy new equipment and upgrade staff.”

j.benson@theday.com

Twitter: @BensonJudy

State labor department, federal OSHA oversee nail salon worker issues

The Connecticut Department of Labor’s Workplace Standards Division has investigated 12 wage complaints at nail salons in Connecticut since 2013, seven of which resulted in findings that workers were owed back pay.

The biggest finding was against Cozy Nail and Spa in Greenwich, which owed 12 workers a total of $120,000 in unpaid wages for 2014, Nancy Steffens, spokeswoman for the department, said.

For the other six, amounts owed to workers ranged from $82 for six workers at one salon, to $54,000 for eight technicians at another. None of the seven salons where wage violations were found were in New London County.

Worker safety issues for nail technicians are the purview of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Laura McGinnis, spokeswoman for the OSHA, said the agency has been concerned about the health risks of hazardous chemical exposures for nail technicians before a recent New York Times article focusing on working conditions in the industry.

OSHA gives safety information sheets about how workers should protect themselves from hazardous chemicals used in salons to salon owners, requiring they provide the information to their technicians, she said.

“Because much of the population working in nail salons are vulnerable workers, OSHA has focused extensive outreach, education and training towards nail salon workers and owners to ensure they are aware of hazards, ways to prevent these hazards, and worker rights under the OSHA Act,” she said. One recent outreach activity took place at the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Center in Lowell, Mass., she said.

As part of its outreach, OSHA has given more than $1 million in grants over the last five years for training and resources to nail salon workers and owners, hosted educational events for salon workers in New York and California, and created a website about nail salon hazards, she said. It has also distributed “tens of thousands” of guidance and training documents in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Nepalese, Chinese and Korean, she said. It also offers free consultation to nail salons and other businesses to help them identify and prevent health and safety hazards at (800) 321-6742.

OSHA has also conducted enforcement actions in response to complaints and cites employers when they are in violation, she said. The agency has not done any inspections of nail salons in New London County in the past two years, she said.

OSHA, she said, “continues to work with grassroots advocates, state and local officials, as well as other federal agencies on improving working conditions for nail salon workers in New York City and across the country,” she said.

— Judy Benson