Dermatitis from solutions of sodium and calcium chloride in the coal-mining industry.

The harmful effects of salt on the skin were first described by Paracelsus (1493-1541, see Schwartz, Tulipan, and Peck, 1947), and there have been accounts since confirming this clinical observation in many industries. Ulcers of the legs occur in salt-miners (Ramazzini, 1700). Salt-water boils are found in shipwrecked sailors and deep-sea fishermen (Critchley, 1943); dock labourers carrying bags of salt develop ulcers of the shoulders, and women in brine bath establishments get slight dermatitis (White, 1934). Fresh herring carriers and picklers develop boils and a pyogenic dermatitis on the inner aspect of the forearm (Collis, 1913) and deep, painful ulcers on the knuckles and alongside the nails. In salt factories perforation of the nasal septum and a dry eczema of the skin are described (Schwartz and others, 1947). Concise accounts of brine dermatitis in the coal-mining industry are rare although the chlorides of natural pit water have been blamed for skin rashes (Fisher, 1944). White (1916) describes an acute eczema of the right hand in a miner which he attributes to the high chloride content of the explosives in constant contact with the skin. This paper describes an outbreak of industrial dermatitis due to brine during the sinking of a pit shaft, and also contains observations on skin reactions due, to a similar cause made over the past three years at another colliery which is in full production.