Trichloroethylene systemic sclerosis

Czirjak L, Schlammadinger J, Szegedi G. 1993. Systemic sclerosis and exposure to trichloroethylene. Dermatology 186 236. 

Scleroderma is a progressive systemic sclerosis with a multisystem connective tissue disease. A number of industrial chemicals have been implicated as causative factors in human scleroderma. Industrial chemicals (e.g., toluene, benzene, xylene, aromatic mixers or white spirit, vinyl chloride, trichloroethylene, perchloroethylene, naphtha-n-hexane, epoxy resins,... 

A fairly strong and consistent association between exposure, primarily in occupational settings, to solvents (e.g. trichloroethylene) and scleroderma has been reported in numerous epidemiological studies (see chapter 8). Scleroderma-like diseases can also be induced by other chemical compounds, such as drugs (D Cruz, 2000) and silica ( Erasmus syndrome ). Workers exposed to vinyl chloride monomers exhibit clinical features that resemble systemic sclerosis, such as fibrotic skin lesions, pulmonary fibrosis, and skin capillary abnormalities. However, vinyl chloride disease also harbours several features that are clearly distinct from systemic sclerosis. After exposure is discontinued, skin lesions, capillary abnormalities, and acroosteolytic lesions revert to nearly normal (Haustein Ziegler, 1985). 

Yanez-Diaz S, Moran M, Unamuno P, Armijo M (1992) Silica and trichloroethylene-induced progressive systemic sclerosis. Dermatology 184 98-102... 

Exposures to xenobiotics have been associated with the onset of several autoimmune diseases. Lupus [systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)], scleroderma (systemic sclerosis), rheumatoid arthritis, and other maladies have been strongly associated with exposures to single chemicals and mixtures of chemicals. The single chemicals include sihca dust, VC, mercuric chloride, trichloroethylene, HCB, hydrazine, and tartrazine. Mixtures include epoxy resins, hair dyes, paint thinners and other (unspecified) organic solvent mixtures, industrial emissions, airborne particulate matter, and hazardous waste-site emissions [27-32],... 

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