Potential concerns with HEMA were explored in an important study conducted by the European Commission on Consumer Safety (SCCS) in 2017 and 2018, which concluded that — when applied appropriately to the nail plate at concentrations of up to 35% — HEMA is not likely to pose a risk of sensitisation, if use is restricted to the nail plate only. The concentration of HEMA in 80Base is approximately half of the recommended maximum and the cured product contains zero free-floating HEMA. It is important to understand that HEMA only poses a risk when it is not properly polymerized during curing. When a formulation is not accurately engineered for precision monomer binding, the product can appear cured to the naked eye after curing, but there may still be free floating HEMA in the product. Similarly if all the raw materials are not of the highest quality, the curing process might not polymerize and bind up all the HEMA particles, thus leaving them active on the nail plate.  The precise formulation and medical grade ingredients of 80Base leave no harmful free-floating monomers after polymerization. While other alternatives to HEMA could provide similar functionality, many of these are toxic or have not been fully tested.