Case report

Dermal absorption of aromatic amines in workers with different skin lesions: a report on 4 cases

Gintautas Korinth¹ , Tobias Weiss² , Jürgen Angerer¹ and Hans Drexler¹

¹  Institute and Out-Patient Clinic of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Schillerstrasse 25/29, D-91054 Erlangen, Germany

²  Research Institute for Occupational Medicine of the Ruhr University of Bochum (BGFA), Bürkle-de-la-Camp Platz 1, D-44789 Bochum, Germany

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Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology 2006, 1:17doi:10.1186/1745-6673-1-17

Published:	19 July 2006

Abstract

There are only few studies about the relationship of skin lesions and the percutaneous uptake of hazardous substances in exposed workers. Several aromatic amines are well known carcinogens for humans and/or animals. This case report emphasizes the relevance of dermal absorption of the aromatic amine ortho-toluidine considering four workers with different skin status (healthy, erythematous and burned skin as well as dishydrotic eczema) during the vulcanisation process of rubber products in a components supplier plant for automobile industry. The results of our case report show that dermal absorption of o-toluidine through damaged epidermal barrier is significantly higher than through healthy skin.