title: Immunologic contact urticaria--the human touch.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To review immunologic contact urticaria (ICU) in the occupational and environmental context, and describe its continued relevance in light of the ever-increasing onslaught of new chemicals and products, as well as new technology placing novel interactions, such as nanoparticles, within reach of the population at home and work.
  
  
  METHODS
  Publications were searched via PubMed, using key words: Occupational, immunologic, contact urticaria, nanoparticle.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  ICU remains an important diagnosis to make and treat because it has widespread health and social morbidity, including job and income loss, persistent life-long allergies, and progression from self-limiting skin eruptions to multi-systemic, sometimes life-threatening, illnesses. There is no short supply of known ICU causing allergens, but it is equally important to be ever vigilant in recognizing, and even adding to, items in the constantly expanding list of novel allergenic agents provided to us by the advances of modern chemistry and technology, and by the changing social structure and lifestyle dynamics.
authors.affiliation: Kaiser Permanente and UC San Francisco, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, San Francisco, CA 94102, USA. christina.wang@kp.org
authors.forename: Christina Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Howard I
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Maibach
mesh_terms: D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000383:Agriculture; D000485:Allergens / Q000009:adverse effects; D017449:Dermatitis, Allergic Contact / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology; D009783:Dermatitis, Occupational / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology; D006633:Histamine Antagonists / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000009:adverse effects; D014581:Urticaria / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology
chemical_list: D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones; D000485:Allergens; D006633:Histamine Antagonists