2018 Volume 1 Issue 2 Pages 116-123
We report the case of a 52-year-old Japanese female who was diagnosed with allergic contact dermatitis due to a cosmetic rubber sponge. The patient developed marked facial swelling and erythema after applying make-up. Patch tests with the cosmetics and cosmetic rubber sponge ( as is ) were negative. However, re-testing with the sponge dipped in distilled water was positive. Further patch tests with the 2008 Japanese standard allergens resulted in positive reactions to thiuram mix and dithiocarbamate mix. Among their constituents, tetramethylthiuram monosulfide, tetraethylthiuram disulfide, and zinc diethyldithiocarbamate (ZDEC) were positive. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry-based analysis detected ZDEC in the cosmetic rubber sponge. ZDEC was used as a vulcanization accelerator during the manufacturing process. Thus, it was assumed that the patient had been sensitive by ZDEC. In our case, a wet cosmetic sponge dipped in distilled water demonstrated a stronger reaction than a dry sponge ( as is ) . Furthermore, dipping the sponge in water revealed the same positive reaction as when the sponge was dipped in acetone and ethanol. ZDEC is minimally soluble in water ; however, we speculate that extremely small amounts of ZDEC are dissolved when the cosmetic rubber sponge is moistened with distilled water, which explains the abovementioned positive patch test results.
