Phenolformaldehyde resin in paper.

This article discusses about a patient who developed itchy dermatitis in hands due to exposure to phenolformaldehyde resin. The patient had to remove the end product from the press. Recently he developed an itchy dermatitis of the dorsa of the hands and was patch tested. He reacted to balsam of Peru, the phenolformaldehyde resin used for impregnation of the paper sheets. The patient was then tested with a number of possible monomers and reacted to all of them. It is difficult to decide which of the substances acted as inducer of contact sensitization in the patient. It depends on the sensitizing capacity of each in the resin vehicle and on the effective mode of exposure.