How thick is your skin...?


Chris Packham Dermatological Engineer EnviroDerm Services


...Not as thick as you might think. The outer layer of the skin, called the stratum corneum, must work properly if we are to stay alive. It is a complex arrangement of dead skin cells, enzymes, bacteria, proteins, water and other substances. Over most of our body it is little thicker than that cling film which you use to wrap sandwiches in!


In our daily life we deliberately, and often unknowingly, subject it to physical, chemical, bacterial and viral attack; yet for most of us this remarkable organ ensures that we do not come to undue harm. Of course, if we exceed our skin’s ability to work for us then the consequences can be dramatic and possibly terminal. Our skin is one part of the human body that has a major impact on our daily lives. It is how others see us, and how we see ourselves. So most of us try to take care of it, sometimes not always wisely. We spend millions of pounds, euros, dollars, etc. every week on products to help keep our skin looking and feeling good.


Our skin is arguably that part of our body most exposed to hazards in the workplace. Unfortunately, the way our skin interacts with our working environment and how we should manage this is something where a myriad of myths and misinformation exists.


Here are just a few of the myths.


Skin diseases are not serious We still frequently encounter a belief that damage to health due to inhalation is the serious issue. Skin problems are just a rash, possibly with some irritation, medically not serious, and certainly not life threatening. The truth is quite different. Take the case of Prof. Karen Wetterhahn. This eminent professor was an expert on magnetic resonance imaging. She was making up a sample in a fume cabinet, wearing the disposable latex gloves commonly used in laboratory research. She spilt what is estimated to be on around 5ml of dimethylmercury on her gloved hand. She finished making up the sample, then removed the gloves. There was no visible sign of any damage. However, some months later she experience problems such as loss of balance, loss of hair, blurring of vision. Medical examination showed that she had several times


10 LUBE MAGAZINE NO.142 DECEMBER 2017


the lethal dose of mercury in her blood. Shortly after this she lapsed into a coma and three months later was dead.


The fact that there is a hazard statement, H310 – fatal in contact with skin, indicates how important skin exposure to chemicals can be.


Antiseptic/bacterial skin cleansers are beneficial There is a frequently held belief that anti-septic or anti-microbial cleansers are essential in many occupations, particularly where food is handled. Presumably the view is that we need to kill any transient – or foreign – bacteria that may be on our skin so that this cannot cause cross contamination or cross infection. The evidence does not support this view. In the first place almost all active antiseptics require considerable time to be effective, usually in the region of one minute. Only rarely does anyone wash their hands for this length of time. Thus the active ingredient will be rinsed off the skin – hopefully together with the transient bacteria – before the active has had any real effect on the pathogenic transient micro-organisms on the skin surface. In this case the active ingredient will have served little purpose. Since most active antiseptic chemicals are incompatible with the milder surfactants that we would wish to use in the skin cleanser, the anti-septic cleanser will generally be more irritant than one that is merely a skin cleanser. Furthermore, all antiseptics are irritant and most are also skin sensitizers, so by incorporating these into a skin cleanser we may be deliberately increasing the risk of skin reactions in our workers.


Another consideration is that some of the antiseptic may well be absorbed into the outer skin cells (corneocytes) with the detergent/water mix of the cleanser. Each time the skin is washed this effect will be repeated and can lead to an accumulation of the biocide in the skin. There it will affect the skin’s own resident bacteria. These are generally harmless to anyone else but play a vital role in that they assist in maintaining a surface skin condition that discourages colonisation of the skin by transient bacteria. By reducing the population of resident flora we may be making it easier for our skin to become colonised by these transients with the increased risk of contamination or cross-infection.


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