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Twenty‐five years quaternium‐15 in the European baseline series: does it deserve its place there?
Author(s) -
De Groot Anton C.,
Coenraads PieterJan
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
contact dermatitis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1600-0536
pISSN - 0105-1873
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0536.2010.01705.x
Subject(s) - allergy , baseline (sea) , contact allergy , medicine , interrupted time series , series (stratigraphy) , formaldehyde , demography , contact dermatitis , immunology , chemistry , law , political science , paleontology , organic chemistry , psychiatry , sociology , psychological intervention , biology
For allergens to be included in the European baseline series, they should have allergy rates of at least 1%. In several studies quaternium‐15 had lower scores. Also, many cases of sensitization are already detected by formaldehyde contact allergy. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether quaternium‐15 deserves continued inclusion in the baseline series on the basis of current criteria: 1% positive reactions, common occurrence in the environment, many relevant reactions. We used the literature survey method in this study. Only the United Kingdom has rates consistently over 1%. The mean for all other countries together and for many individual nations is lower than 1%. At least half of the reactions are already detected by formaldehyde sensitivity, which lowers rates for allergy to quaternium‐15 per se (i.e. not caused or at least detected by formaldehyde sensitivity) to less than 0.6% for all countries except the United Kingdom. Neither common occurrence in the environment nor a high percentage of relevant reactions has been ascertained. It may well be argued that quaternium‐15 does not deserve its place in the European baseline series and could be incorporated in a cosmetic screening series or preservative series instead. In the United Kingdom, routine testing should be continued.