Wood Dust Causes Contact Allergy

Jelutong is the wood from Dvera costulata growing in south-east Asia.  It is soft and easy to work and is used in, e.g., model workshops in car factories.  It has also been much used in woodwork teaching in Swedish comprehensive schools.  To estimate the prevalence of contact allergy to jelutong, 84 woodwork teachers and 110 consecutive dermatitis patients were patch tested with extract from wood dust of jelutong.  16/84 (19%) teachers had positive reactions.  When they were tested with a dilution series, positive reactions were obtained for 6mg and down to O.3mg of the extracted material.  Half the test-positive teachers had skin symptoms that might he related to exposure to jelutong.  4/110 dermatitis patients at the clinic also had positive reactions, and possible exposure to jelutong was traced in 3 of them.  3 other dermatitis patients had flare-up reactions after about 2 weeks, indicating patch-test sensitization.  To investigate the sensitizing capacity of the extract, the cumulative contact enhancement test was performed in guinea pigs.  This confirmed that the extracted material was sensitizing, and a clear dose-response relationship was found.  The schools will be recommended to use safer wood alternatives in woodwork teaching.

The preceding abstract was reprinted with permission from Section 35 (Occupational Health and Industrial Medicine) of Excerpta Medica.

Wood Dust From Jelutong (Dyera Costulata) Causes Contact Allergy.

Meding B., Karlberg A.T. and Ahman M. - Department Occupational Dermatology, Natl.

Institute Occupational Health. S-171 84 Solna SWE - Contact Dermatitis 1996 34/5 (349-353).

Art Hazard News, Volume 20, No. 1, 1997

This article was originally printed for Art Hazard News, © copyright Center for Safety in the Arts 1997. It appears on CAR courtesy of the Health in the Arts Program, University of Illinois at Chicago, who have curated a collection of these articles from their archive which are still relevant to artists today.