title: Irritancy testing of sodium laurate and other anionic detergents using an open exposure model.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The irritant potency of soap (sodium laurate, LAU) as opposed to other anionic detergents is not uniformly agreed upon. The aim of the study was to compare the irritancy of sodium laurate with that of sodium laurylsulphate (SLS), sodium cocoyl isethionate and disodium lauryl 3-ethoxysulphosuc-cinate by means of a 4-day repeated open exposure model in order to achieve a more realistic mimicry of daily practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  The effects of the exposures were evaluated by: a) number of fulfilled exposures, b) visual score after exposures, and c) transepidermal water loss (TEWL) after exposures.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the majority of subjects, exposure to LAU had to be stopped because of burning sensations, erythema and/or scaling. The number of fulfilled exposures to LAU was lower than that of SLS. The other agents were tolerated very well. These less irritative agents had much lower visual scores and TEWL values after the repeated exposures compared with LAU and SLS.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The explanation for the irritant nature of LAU in the present study might be the type of alkyl chain length distribution. Its 12-carbon chain content was ≤ 99%, and this agent can therefore be designated as pure sodium laurate. The same holds true for SLS. In daily practice, however, soap is a mixture of different - less irritant - chain lengths. Therefore, these findings cannot be extrapolated to commercially available soap bars.
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Dermatology, University Hospital, Groningen and2Department of Medical Statistics, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Tupker
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Dermatology, University Hospital, Groningen and2Department of Medical Statistics, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vermeulen
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Dermatology, University Hospital, Groningen and2Department of Medical Statistics, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fidler
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Dermatology, University Hospital, Groningen and2Department of Medical Statistics, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Coenraads
keywords: irritancy; open exposure; sodium laurate; sodium laurylsulphate; transepidermal water loss