Occupational allergic and irritant contact dermatitis in workers exposed to polyurethane foam

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate sensitization to chemicals present in work environment after an outbreak of contact dermatitis in workers of vehicle equipment factory, exposed to polyurethane foam, based on 4,4'-diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI). Material and Methods: From among 300 employees, 21 individuals reporting work-related skin and/or respiratory tract symptoms underwent clinical examination, patch testing, skin prick tests, spirometry and MDI sIgE measurement in serum. Patch tests included isocyanates series, selected rubber additives, metals, fragrances, preservatives, and an antiadhesive agent. Results: Clinical examination revealed current eczema in the area of hands and/or forearms in 10 workers. Positive patch test reactions were found in 10 individuals, the most frequent to diaminodiphenylmethane and 4-phenylenediamine (7 persons).

Prevalence and risk factors of contact dermatitis among clothing manufacturing employees in Beijing

“…[8] The prevalence of dermatitis for other occupations have also previously been reported such as health care workers, hairdressers, car mechanics, shoe manufacturing workers, tanner, and vehicle equipment workers. [6–9,25] As there are few studies among clothing employees, it is not easy to specify the CD prevalence for the clothing industry. Also, because the relevant literature is mostly only concerned with dermatitis caused by textile dyes, and the studies are not up-to-date, these results are often not worthy of comparison.…”

“…[4,5] Employees with the highest risk of development CD are those working in the healthcare, hairdressing, car repair, leather manufacture, and shoe manufacturing industries. [6–9] Nevertheless, studies on textile and garment dermatitis have only been undertaken among registered patients, [5,10,11] literature related to OCD of employees in the Chinese clothing industry is very limited.…”

Occupational contact dermatitis caused by polyurethane foam: 6 cases

“…Third, and most commonly discussed in the literature, MDA is a intermediate agent in manufacturing but is suitable as a contact allergen. According to this hypothesis, negative patch test results with MDI might be explained either by lack of stability of the commercialized preparations of diisocyanates, by false‐negative reactions, as we did not use a late reading (D7), or by primary sensitization after repeated contact with MDA, and secondary sensitization to diisocyanate MDI …”

A case of contact dermatitis caused by a polyurethane hot melt adhesive

“…Contact dermatitis caused by polyurethane is often caused by hardeners such as diisocyanates, for example, diphenylmethane‐4,4′‐diisocyanate and toluene‐2,4‐diisocyanate . In this case, contact allergy was caused by DMBM, which is an ultraviolet light absorber, and Tinuvin 770, which is a light stabilizer contained in HMAs.…”