 to find out just how easily they would burn. What we found out will shock you! 
 We chose a prominently displayed brand, and decided to simulate what would happen if a person wearing artificial nails were to momentarily expose a fake nail to flame, perhaps when lighting a cigarette. In order to do this safely, we set up the apparatus, as shown above at the right, inside our school lab's fume hood, where the toxic vapours from the burning plastic would be safely drawn away. Not knowing in advance how flammable the nails were, we suspended them with forceps on a metal stand, so we wouldn't have to hold them while applying a flame. A pink sheet of paper was placed behind the setup to make the photos clearer. 
    Within half a second of the flame touching the end of the nail, it began burning. Within two or three seconds, the nail curled into a burning blob, all the while emitting dense black smoke. The flame soon reached a height of about 5 centimetres. 
 As the nail continued to burn, melting gobbets of plastic began to drip off the end. However, they burned so fast that they never had a chance to fall off the nail. The nail continued burning brightly for a full 30 seconds. 
We repeated the procedure several times, with the same result. The nail burst into flame almost instantly, and each time, the nail continued to burn for about 30 seconds.We should point out that we did not apply the glue supplied with the nails. We can only assume that glue on the nails (it's ethyl cyanoacrylate, or 'superglue') would certainly not make them burn any less vigorously. 
So what does this all mean?The label on the box does say to keep the nails 'away from heat or flame' (in the very fine print). But clearly it would be very easy for someone wearing these nails to accidentally set them aflame, especially if that person is a smoker. Once the nail is burning, the hot melting plastic ('ABS plastic', according to the box) would run onto the person's finger, causing a serious burn. Attempting to put out the nail fire on clothing could set that on fire as well. Once set aflame, the nail would continue to burn for a long time, possibly causing an even more severe burn. Our advice: don't wear these things! Better yet, give up smoking! Additional Note: This test wasn't meant to be a scientifically exacting experiment, but we think the results speak for themselves. Actual nails in use would be attached to a finger, but half a centimetre or more of nail would still be exposed to the air. We didn't measure the times accurately, (although we'll stick by our estimate of half a second to ignite), nor did we measure the temperature of the burning plastic. However, the burnt plastic, when extinguished with a rag, was too hot to touch. |