Skin contact allergy to emulsifiers

Contact allergy to cetyl and stearyl alcohols has been reported for many years. About one per cent of eczema patients are allergic to either alcohol or a mixture of the two. In the present study, 11 of 1374 patients reacted to 20% cetylstearyl alcohol in patch tests. Results of a previous study, suggested that some impurities in commercial cetyl and stearyl alcohols might be responsiblefor the contact allergies.