Occupational contact allergy to the epoxy resin hardener 2-methylpentane-1,5-diamine.

A 63-year-old painter and varnisher presented with a 4-year history of work-related contact dermatitis affecting the dorsal surfaces of his hands, forearms, and face. He reported itching, burning and oozing when he occupationally handled epoxy resin systems. Patch testing was performed by the use of small Finn Chambers® on Scanpor® tape (SmartPractice Europe, Reinbek, Germany) with the baseline, rubber, resins/adhesives, ointment base, preservative and industrial biocides series, as recommended by the guideline of the German Contact Dermatitis Research Group (3), and with ingredients of the patient’s working material: epoxy resin based on diglycidyl ether of bisphenol F (0.25% pet.), 4-tert-butylphenol (1% pet.), polyoxypropylene diamine (1% pet.), 1-methoxy-2-propanole (5% pet.), and MPMD (0.25% pet.). The exposure time was 2 days. Non-negative test reactions are shown in Table 1.