TRU Staff Scholar, Reena Shadaan awarded the Acceleration Consortium Seed Grant to support worker-governed technologies that address chemical hazards at work.

March 12, 2026

Graphical abstract. Credit to Mohammad Nazeri and Erin Ng.

“Ethical Nail Salons: A community-governed and SDL-facilitated approach to mitigate occupational chemical hazards in nail salons” innovatively applies the principles of community-based research to materials science. The project is a community-governed collaboration of nail technicians, the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre, the Nail Technicians' Network, the Acceleration Consortium’s SDLs, the Indigenous Science and Ethical Substance lab, and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Collaboratively, we will develop workflows to support the creation of a safe, functional, and worker-governed nail polish as a type of “ethical substance.”

The lead project team includes: 

  • Victoria Arrandale (PI, Dalla Lana School of Public Health)

  • Reena Shadaan (Co-PI, Indigenous Science and Ethical Substance lab, Technoscience Research Unit)

  • M. Murphy (Technoscience Research Unit)

  • Jackie Liang (Nail Technicians' Network, Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre)

  • Miriam Woldu (Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre)

  • Sidiqour Hakeem (Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre)

  • Muzn Osman (Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre)

  • Frank Gu (Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, Acceleration Consortium)

  • Mohammad Nazeri (Institute of Biomedical Engineering)

  • Erin Ng (Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry)