Contact Dermatitis from Platinum and Related Metals

Abstract

Cases of contact dermatitis due to metallic platinum have been considered so rare as to be nonexistent.^* In April, 1945, Hunter, Milton, and Perry²studied 91 male employees exposed to a spray of the complex salts of platinum; of these, 52 exhibited running nose, sneezing, shortness of breath, tightness in the chest, and so on, and 13 had dermatitis. They stated that there was no trouble from the metallic platinum or from the palladium. Marshall³reported cases of asthma and dermatitis due to chloroplatinic acid. More recently, Roberts¹conducted a five-year study of the effects of soluble platinum salts on the employees of a platinum laboratory and refinery, in which he showed that when the salts were splashed on the skin a contact dermatitis could be produced and that when the salts were inhaled asthma often ensued. He studied some 21 employees and was able to