Book Description
Taking a practical approach to contact dermatitis--an inflammatory skin reaction caused by contact with chemicals--this book covers all relevant current practice in toxicology as well as future trends in the field. The authors thoroughly examine the three types of contact dermatitis: allergy, irritation, and urticaria, or chronic hives. Six chapters cover mechanisms, alternative text models, detailed studies on the role of mechanistic data in risk assessment, the ins and outs of the regulatory approval process, and more.
From the Back Cover
Current Toxicology Series Series Editors Diana Anderson, BIBRA Toxicology International, Surrey, UK Michael D Waters, Consultant, Chapel Hill, NC, USA Timothy C Marrs, Department of Health, London, UK Toxicology of Contact Dermatitis Allergy, Irritancy and Urticaria David Basketter, Unilever R&D, Safety & Environmental Assurance Centre Toxicology Unit, Bedford, UK Frank Gerberick, Proctor & Gamble, Miami Valley Laboratories, Cincinnati, OH, USA Ian Kimber, ZENECA Pharmaceuticals, Central Toxicology Laboratory, Macclesfield, UK Carolyn Willis, Department of Dermatology, Amersham Hospital, Amersham, UK The contact dermatoses represent a family of clinical conditions of the skin which affect a surprising number of people. These diseases cover skin irritation, allergic contact dermatitis (skin sensitisation) and the urticarias (both immunologic and non-immunologic). They arise from contact with chemicals at work (contact dermatitis is the major cause of occupational health problems) and from consumer contact with chemicals in the home (in cosmetics, household products, medicaments, pesticides, and so on). The aim of this book is to describe in detail the latest understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in the three main aspects of contact dermatitis (irritation, allergy and urticaria), to then encapsulate modern approaches to the evaluation of chemical hazards in this area by critically reviewing the test methodologies involved, and finally to illustrate how the risks presented may be assessed. This last point is a critical area, since methods for the identification of these hazards (at least for skin irritation and sensitisation) have been available for some years. However, the understanding of how to measure the potency of these hazards and so enable a proper risk assessment is only now becoming a more tractable and thus transparent activity. Better and more consistent risk assessments are the optimal route to the reduction of the morbidity presented by the skin disorders described in this book. This timely book is essential reading for toxicologists, dermatologists, occupational health specialists, allergologists and those with an interest in risk assessment and safety evaluation.
