Irritant hairdressers

Health and Safety. The dermal toxicology of alkaline solutions of thioglycolic acid has been reviewed extensively (63—65). The reagent has been found harmless to normal skin when used under conditions adopted for cold waving. Some irritation is observed on abraded skin but this appears to be associated with the alkaline component of the waving solution (65). Hand protection is recommended for the professional hairdressers who routinely handle these products. 

Irritant-reaction ICD is a type of subclinical irritant dermatitis in individuals exposed to wet work, including hairdressers and metal workers, during their first months of training. This diagnosis is made if the clinical picture is monomorphic rather than polymorphic and is characterised by one or more of the following signs scaling, redness, vesicles, pustules and erosions (Frosch 1995). 

Suter-Widmer J, Eisner P (1994) Age and irritation. In van der Valk PGM, Maibach HI (eds) The Irritant contact dermatitis syndrome. CRC, Boca Raton, pp 257-261 Uter W, Gefeller 0, Schwanitz HJ (1995) Occupational dermatitis in hairdressing apprentices. In Eisner P, Maibach HI (eds) Irritant dermatitis. New clinical and experimental aspects. Karger, Basel, pp 49-55... 

Granite Hairdresser s chemicals Halogens (fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine) Abrasive quartz dust increased prevalence of gingivitis and dental caries in Danish granite-industry workers (Petersen and Henmar 1988) Laryngitis (Sala et al. 1996) Irritate in high concentrations ... 

Table 8. Repeated microtrauma associated with onycholysis caused by foreign bodies. This may be associated with an acute trauma (metal) or repeated microtrauma (hairdressers, for example). Occupational onycholysis is most frequently due to chemical irritants or sensitizers. In addition, there are infective causes, which tend to be limited to medical personnel and occupations which entail prolonged soaking of the hands Candida and Pseudomonas)...

Hairdressers with irritant contact dermatitis appeared to have good prognosis when they changed jobs. Matsunaga reported a 70% clearance rate for workers who ceased working as hairdressers (Matsunaga et al. 1998). 

All these studies confirm that dermatitis is a very common disease among hairdressers. The majority of the cases is affected by a slight chronic irritant contact dermatitis, but severe hand dermatitis is not uncommon and may cause sick leave or force the hairdressers to give up their job. 

Both occupation type and gender have shown to be relevant identifiers for hand dermatitis and occupational skin disease. In most studies, women are affected more than men. Also as mentioned previously, certain wet work occupations as well as those jobs with frequent exposure to irritants or allergens such as hairdressers, cooks, health-care works, cleaning staff, and metal workers have much higher 1 year prevalence rates [72], A sununary of data based on patch tests in different countries allows for representation of the incidence of occupational skin disease per occupation (Table 4.6). 

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