CONTACT DERMATITIS – INTRODUCTION
Contrary to what most people believe, there are few contagious skin diseases. I have sometimes seen several workers from one section who develop a contact dermatitis to some irritant and wrongly believe they are passing it on from one to the other. The poor fellow who develops it first often gets a bad time from his workmates.
Contact dermatitis is a common problem in industry — but almost as many cases come from housewives whose skins are irritated by chemicals they come in contact with in normal chores or from men and women tinkering around with chemicals in hobby pursuits.
Some skin is more sensitive. This may be as important as the irritant substance.
Contact dermatitis usually affects the face or the hands. These are the areas most exposed to chemicals and work may unfairly be blamed as the source of the problem because few people realise they can become sensitive to soap, detergents, cosmetics or even creams or ointments they use for some other rash.
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