Abstract
The mechanisms governing the incidence of pesticide dermatitis have been considered to lie mainly in primary irritation, contact allergy, and photosensitivity induced by pesticides. Taking these mechanisms into consideration, the authors, based on the characteristics of clinical symptoms, divided patients with pesticide dermatitis into 4 types — chemical burn type, acute dermatitis type, chronic dermatitis type, and solar dermatitis type. 243 patients with pesticide dermatitis visited Saku Central Hospital in 11 years from 1975 through 1985; of them, those with pesticide dermatitis of chemical burn type, of acute dermatitis type, of chronic dematitis type, and of solar dermatitis type were each 10.7%, 52.7%, 25.9% and 10.7%, respectively. Pesticides patch test were carried out for 12 years from 1975 through 1986 at 23 places in the region in Nagano prefecture. The total number of persons tested was 766 and that of pesticides 96. In view of the fact that there are partly those cases of pesticide dermatitis in which the region of rash coincides with the skin part exposed to light and which show symptoms of solar dermatitis, there is a possibility that a pesticide, acting as a photo-sensitizing agent, causes exogeneous photosensitive dermatitis. Therefore, photo-patch test were carried out with 17 pesticides. The subjects of the test were 52 patients of pesticide dermatitis and 26 formers.
