Contact urticaria and protein contact dermatitis in the Finnish Register of Occupational Diseases in a period of 12 years.

BACKGROUND: Although occupational contact urticaria (CU) and protein contact dermatitis (PCD) are considered frequent among workers with exposure to proteinaceous materials, data on occupations at risk and the main causes of these occupational skin diseases are relatively limited. OBJECTIVES: To report the causative agents and risk occupations for CU and PCD in the Finnish Register of Occupational Diseases (FROD). METHODS: We retrieved from the FROD all recognized cases of CU/PCD in the years 2005-2016. RESULTS: With 570 cases, CU and PCD constituted 11% of all recognized cases of occupational skin diseases in the study period. Occupations with the highest incidence of CU/PCD included bakers, chefs and cooks, farmers and farm workers, veterinarians, gardeners, and hairdressers. The most common causative agents were cow dander and flour and grain, followed by natural rubber latex (NRL) and other food. In food-related occupations, wheat and other flours were by far the most common cause of CU/PCD, with 76 cases, whereas fish and other animal-derived food caused 33 and other plant-derived food caused 23 cases. CONCLUSIONS: Apart from the Finnish peculiarity of cow dander allergy, a striking finding was a large share of CU/PCD caused by flours in food handlers as compared to other food.

Phytophotodermatitis induced by wild parsnip.

Phytophotodermatitis results when skin is exposed to ultraviolet light after previous contact with a phototoxic compound. Wild parsnip (Pastinia sativa), a member of the Umbelliferae family, is an invasive plant species introduced to North America as a root vegetable. Although cultivated less commonly today, the plant is increasingly found growing wild in prairies and roadsides. The stems and leaves contain furocoumarins, which upon activation by UV light interact with oxygen. Resultant reactive oxygen species induce tissue damage manifesting initially as blistering and later as hyperpigmentation. We report the case of a woman who developed phytophoto-dermatitis after encountering wild parsnip on a midwestern prairie.

Systemic allergic dermatitis caused by Apiaceae root vegetables.

BACKGROUND: Immediate hypersensitivity reactions to root vegetables of the Umbelliferae plant family (Apiaceae) is well known. Delayed-type hypersensitivity is rarely reported. OBJECTIVE: To report the first case of systemic contact dermatitis caused by root vegetables and some chemical implications. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Prick and patch testing were performed with fresh vegetables and selected allergens, and this was followed by high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (MS)/MS analysis of the falcarinol syringe. RESULTS: The patient was contact-sensitive to celeriac, parsnip, and carrot, but tested negative to falcarinol. Subsequent analysis showed that the syringe contained falcarinol. CONCLUSION: The non-occupational sensitization resulting from both direct and systemic contact with Apiaceae root vegetables was apparently not caused by falcarinol.

Can dietary furanocoumarin ingestion enhance the erythemal response during high-dose UVA1 therapy?

As phototoxic skin reactions caused by psoralen are induced by wavelengths within the UVA1 spectrum, we assessed the potential of the small amount of psoralen in a normal diet to provoke phototoxicity in volunteers with skin types I and II. Threshold erythema was unaffected by ingestion of a 200-g portion of parsnip.