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Posted By akm
An employee has reported dry hands and soreness which I've tracked down to a change in liquid hand soap in the toilets. It transpires that the Facilities department agreed to a change in soap type a month ago to an anti-bacterial one. At the moment this is one person in over 450.
Perhaps its because I've just come back from holiday but I would appreciate some advice on the best way to deal with this.
Many thanks in advance
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Posted By Chris Packham
Anti-microbial soaps are largely unnecessary and can even be counter-productive. They are generally more irritant than normal liquid soap, since many of the mild constituents that one would wish to use are incompatible with the active antiseptic. The BMA could find no benefit in using anti-microbial soap over normal liquid soap. Some studies indicate that they can actually reduce the resident flora in the skin, and since these help prevent colonisation by transient (potentially pathogenic) micro-organisms they may make the skin more susceptible to colonisation.
Your employee should revert to a mild liquid soap. The foam type are usually particularly mild. They should also start to apply a moisturising lotion after hand washing (but not if hands are then to be inserted into gloves). Note, lotion not cream, to be applied sparingly as excessive application of moisturiser can actually render the skin more susceptible to irritant damage.
Hope this is of some help. If you need more contact me off the forum.
Chris
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Posted By J Fennel
I would not think it reasonable to have to revert back to the old soap for the sake of a single employee. Presumably they are absolutely certain about it being the cause because the soreness dissipated when they stopped using it and it alone?
I would get them to bring their own soap into work which is suitable to their own allergies, or if you want to be exceptionally nice, provide them with a bar of 'simple' (other brands are available).
J
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Posted By Chris Packham
J
I think that an investigation would probably find that this is an irritant contact dermatitis rather than an allergic reaction. Irritant contact dermatitis is much more common (70-80% of all occupational skin disease is irritant contact dermatitis) and is multi-factorial and chronic, due to repeated exposures to many different chemicals causing damage to accumulate over time. So far only one employee has responded, but this may just be the start. Skin hydration measurements might show that others' skin is accumulating damage and that more cases might appear.
Of course, it could be an allergic reaction, in which case the culprit might well be the active anti-microbial in the new soap. Virtually all of these 'actives' are both irritants and sensitisers. If I were advising a client it would be that, unless there is a compelling reason to use an antiseptic cleanser (and this is extremely rare) they should revert back to the ordinary liquid soap. These are usually cheaper, milder on the skin and less likely to provoke a skin reaction.
Chris
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Posted By Ian Blenkharn
Before resorting to potions and lotions, and worrying unnecessarily about infectious agents etc, is there a problem with the approach to use of the liquid soap? This is particularly common, especially after a change from bar soap to liquid but can occur at any time.
It is often a problem with liquid soaps that users rub their hands with concentrated soap and only then use water. This creates all sorts of skin problems.
Your guy may need to take care for a while for things to settle, but do make certain that he, and others, apply liquid soap only to wetted hands to avoid problems of skin irritation.
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Posted By Bob Youel
is the new soap cheaper than the old one? because if not why have facilities changed!
this area does fall under COSHH so go from there and your facilities dept should have involved you/others at the early stages -
Comments like 'it only effects 1 out of many' cannot be the right position unless a full COSHH etc RA has been undertaken
there has been good advice posted here about the different aspects so please follow it
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Posted By akm
Many thanks for the advice. Greatly appreciated as ever
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Posted By RS
I'd agree with the previous post. One complaint is not irrelevant.Others may be suffering in silence. If ordinsry soap was acceptable before this change, well its simple, change back again!
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