Contact dermatitis to a rubber allergen with both dithiocarbamate and benzothiazole structure.

Contact dermatitis to rubber products are often caused by additives used during manufacture, and diagnosed from patch test with established rubber allergen series. In these series the compounds are divided into separate groups such as thiurams, dithiocarbamates and mercaptobenzothiazoles. The objectives were to investigate the substances with allergenic structures present in a diving mask giving rise to facial dermatitis, also those substances including structures from different groups of rubber chemicals. The rubber material was analysed by high-performance liquid chromatography and diode-array detector. The patient was tested by epicutaneous tests using pure substances, extracts and authentic rubber material. 2-Benzothiazolyl-N,N-diethylthiocarbamylsulfide, was found in the diving mask and the patient showed positive reaction to the pure compound and to extracts of the diving mask. This compound has structures of both mercaptobenzothiazole and thiuram/dithiocarbamate in its formulae. Besides the established groups of rubber accelerators, uncommon allergens with structures from more than one group can be formed or added at vulcanization. Chemical analysis of the product is needed to find these allergens.