Lacquer dermatitis

Abstract: Pusey's 1 recent article on lacquer dermatitis and Lane's 2 articles on the more accurate classification of industrial skin diseases and industrial dermatitis in general, are the incentive of this article on lacquer dermatitis as seen by me at one of our largest pineapple canneries in Hawaii, wherein 1,527,948 cases, averaging twenty-four cans each, wereturned out during the season of 1922. At this cannery, every can passes through a hot bath made of one part of a commercial lacquer and five parts of gasoline. The clinical appearance of the dermatitis caused by this mixture is so in accord with Pusey's description that I have without question classified it as a lacquer dermatitis, or, to use Lane's classification, dermatosis industrialis (papulovesicular lacquer). It is possible that the gasoline may add to the skin irritation, but I am convinced since reading Pusey's article that the lacquer is the direct cause. In rare

Abstract: Dermatitis caused by hair lacquer has by now become recognized as a well defined clinical entity. The condition has been described mostly in women who use the lacquer to keep hair in place, a matter of some difficulty in the case of the present fashionable "upswept hair-do." Some instances have been reported in young children, 1 in whom the lacquer was used presumably for the same function, as a hair dressing. This communication reports 2 cases in which infants of less than a year were affected. Since the lacquer was not applied directly to the victims' hair, the diagnosis was considerably more difficult than in the usual case of this disorder. The pathogenesis of this dermatitis has been studied in detail by Schwartz. 2 Hair lacquer in use before the war contained shellac, which seems to have produced dermal reactions very seldom. Since then, synthetic resins, combinations of rosin and

Abstract: It has long been established 1 that Japanese lacquer is a dermal irritant, but it was Pusey's report 2 of a case of lacquer dermatitis, solved through the ingenious work of L. F. Weber, which aroused particular interest in the subject in this country. Soon after that, Wayson 3 reported cases in canneries, where every can passed through a hot bath of a commercial lacquer and gasoline and often caused papulovesicular dermatitis among the workers. When the game of mah jong became popular in this country, instances of dermatitis venenata from lacquer on the boxes of mah jong sets were recognized and reported. 4 The fact that lacquered bowls, plates and cups are in use and that they may be the source of irritation has received little if any attention. The following report of a case illustrates this and also demonstrates the need for better interpretation of cause and effect.