I'm just wondering if anyone out there has had an allergy to the soap their facility uses, and if so how did you prove it was the soap?
I've been at my job almost 3 months, and anytime I work by the time I get home I have spots of flaky, scaly skin on the back of my hand at the wrist and my hands and the lower part of my wrists (where I wash) are swollen and red. The affected area extends past where the gloves sit - and we don't have latex gloves, they're vinyl. So I'm pretty sure it's the soap. On days I don't have a c diff patient and use the gel more, the symptoms are markedly less.
I couldn't find the entire ingredients list, but the active ingredient is triclosan. I had read some sketchy things about triclosan years ago and so I don't use any triclosan based soaps in my home. But, research says that contact dermatitis from triclosan is actually pretty rare.
Anyway, I spoke with the employee health nurse and she said that it was more likely it was the gloves as the affected area doesn't have to match the contact exactly. But she also was talking about latex allergy, and as I said we don't have latex gloves. She said I'm going to have to see my private physician and get some sort of test to bring back to show what it is I'm allergic to before she can authorize alternative products for me. I'm not exactly sure how my doctor can test the hundreds of thousands of possible ingredients to see what I'm allergic to. I would assume I would at least have to bring a sample of the soap and gloves in, wouldn't I?
Any experiences with this sort of thing would be really appreciated. I can usually get my skin back in decent condition by the 3rd or 4th day off, but I don't think I should have to deal with it or have my skin integrity constantly compromised on the job.
