OCCUPATIONAL DERMATITIS IN CIGAR MAKERS DUE TO CONTACT WITH TOBACCO LEAVES

Abstract

Industrial physicians dealing with tobacco workers were acquainted with the occupational diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, organs of respiration, nervous system and mucous membranes of the eyes due to the tobacco dust and vapor. Diseases of the skin were observed but occasionally. The dermatoses most frequently described were those produced by traumatism, foreign bodies, inflammatory infections, felons, cellulitis and alteration of the nails. Dermatitis of tobacco workers due to contact with tobacco leaves has been only infrequently observed. White,¹Oppenheim, Rille and Ullmann²and Schwartz and Tulipan³all emphasized the scarcity of cases of dermatitis due to hypersensitivity to tobacco and enumerated other factors in the various phases in the processing and manufacturing of tobacco which may produce dermatitis. One of us (S. G.) had the opportunity over a period of twenty-five years to observe hundreds of cases of dermatoses in a cigar factory which were all