Abstract for Short Course 3.3

 

 

Skin notation – past, present, future

Heinz Ahlers
National Institute for Occupational Health, USA

This short course will provide a brief overview of the history of the use of the “skin” notation, current activities involving updating the skin notation and potential future paths for the skin notation. The use of the skin notation in the United States dates back at least as far as 1961 when it appeared in the ACGIH Threshold Limit Values handbook. The ACGIH notation intended the notation as an “attention calling designation” to prevent cutaneous absorption from invalidating the threshold limit value. The ACGIH notation, or notations with similar intent, were incorporated by The US Occupation Safety and Health Administration, the German MAK commission, and many other countries. These notations were intended to address the contribution of exposure pathways other than inhalation, to systemic toxicity. The continued prevalence of occupationally related skin diseases led development of alternative skin notations and alternative criteria for applying the skin notation in the last quarter of the 20th century. We will explore techniques to predict skin permeation potential in the absence of reliable animal data. We will discuss the ECETOX model, the proposed NIOSH model and the Robinson model. Additional notations were put forth to identify sensitizers and dermal sensitizers. Proposals for quantifying the contribution to systemic toxicity are dependent on ways of quantifying skin exposure. Some alternative methods will be discussed. The use of modeling and alternative and developing measurement will impact the future efforts to prevent skin disease from occupational or environmental exposures.

Content last modified: 31 May 2005

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