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Article
September 1954

DERMATOLOGIC PROBLEMS IN THE RAILROAD INDUSTRY RESULTING FROM CONVERSION TO DIESEL POWER

Author Affiliations

PITTSBURGH

From the Department of Dermatology and Syphilology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh.

AMA Arch Derm Syphilol. 1954;70(3):289-292. doi:10.1001/archderm.1954.01540210029005
Abstract

SCHWARTZ1 stated in a recently published paper, "Prior to the advent of the Diesel type of locomotive there was only an occasional case of occupational dermatitis reported among workers in railroad machine shops and roundhouses. But as railroads began to use Diesels the number of cases of occupational dermatitis increased, so that now it has become a problem."

The dermatitides appearing since Dieselization are indeed perplexing, and they present so many peculiar angles and particular features that they seemed worthy of review and summary. These dermatologic problems can be divided into three groups:

  1. Those due to procedures used in cleaning and maintaining engine parts

  2. Those due to fuel oil itself

  3. Those due to chromates used as anticorrosion agents in Diesel radiators

PROBLEMS RESULTING FROM CLEANING AND MAINTAINING ENGINE PARTS

The operations of cleaning and maintaining Diesel engine parts generally are no different from those used in

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