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Aim: Excessive sweat production in primary hyperhidrosis (PH) can lead to water and mineral loss, yet data on patients’ dietary habits are limited.

Purpose: To explore associations between food and beverage consumption and severe PH.

Patients and Methods: Participants with primary palmar and axillary hyperhidrosis (n=171) and without hyperhidrosis (n=165) completed a validated questionnaire on food and beverage habits at two hospitals in northern Sweden. Frequency and quantity of specific foods and beverages were compared between groups.

Results: A total of 336 individuals participated in this study (men, n=109; women, n=218; unspecified sex, n=9). Individuals with PH were younger (18–29 years, n=104 vs n=66; p<0.001) and more frequently female compared to controls (n=75 vs 58; p<0.001). Total caffeine consumption was higher in PH (median score: 186.6 vs.151.0; p<0.001), and 57% of individuals with PH consumed energy drinks weekly compared with 39.5% of controls (p<0.001). Spicy foods, fatty foods, fast foods, and sweets were reported to trigger sweating. Women with PH more often reported difficulties replenishing water loss, and increased thirst was the most reported symptom in both men and women.

Conclusion: PH was associated with higher caffeine intake, distinct beverage consumption patterns, and self-reported fluid loss symptoms. These findings indicate potential associations between diet and PH and may inform patient education and future research, although causality cannot be inferred from this study.

Studies on the effect from biobased materials and products on humans have indicated positive effects. This has earlier been shown in studies for e.g. hospitals, where indications of lower stress and pain in patients with wood as part ofinterior solutions. This paper describes the first step of a larger study that investigates the interior environment and the response of patients. The study presented here measured RH, temperature, emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and microbial activities in two rooms at a hospital in Skellefteá, Orthopaedic ward. One room had a cross-laminated wood panel covering 42% ofwalls, window reveal and doors, and the other a control room with standard coverings. Results indicated only a small difference between the rooms in terms of temperature and RH. VOC emissions varied in both rooms but all concentrations were lower or much lower than threshold values for interior air quality standard limits. Biological contamination ofthe surfaces and from air sampling was also performed. Conclusions of this experimental study shows that from a regulatory perspective it is possible and safe to use wood as interior product.

Background: The textile dye mix (TDM) 6.6% in petrolatum contains Disperse Blue (DB) 35, Disperse Yellow 3, Disperse Orange (DO) 1 and 3, Disperse Red 1 and 17, and DB 106 and 124. The most frequent allergen in TDM-positive patients is DO 3. Around 85% of para-phenylenediamine (PPD)-allergic dermatitis patients have been positive to DO 3. There has been a discussion to exclude DO 3 from TDM 6.6% because of strong simultaneous reactions to TDM and PPD.

Objectives: To study if DO 3 can be excluded from TDM 6.6%.

Methods: Patch tests were performed on 1481 dermatitis patients with TDM 6.6%, TDM 7.0% (without DO 3 but the other disperse dyes at 1.0% each), DO 3 1.0%, and PPD 1.0% pet.

Results: Contact allergy to TDM 6.6% was 3.6% and to TDM 7.0% was 3.0%. All 26 DO 3-positive patients were positive to PPD. The 44 patients positive to TDM 7.0% plus the 13 positive to PPD and TDM 6.6% but negative to TDM 7.0% were 57, outnumbering the 53 positive to TDM 6.6%.

Conclusion: TDM 7.0% can replace TDM 6.6% in the Swedish baseline series, since TDM 7.0% together with PPD 1.0% will detect patients with textile dye allergy.

Background: Allergic contact dermatitis has considerable public health impact and causative haptens vary over time.

Objectives: To report the prevalence of contact allergy to allergens in the Swedish baseline series 2010 to 2017, as registered in the Swedish Patch Test Register.

Methods: Results and demographic information for patients tested with the Swedish baseline series in 2010 to 2017 were analysed.

Results: Data for 21 663 individuals (females 69%) were included. Females had significantly more positive patch tests (54% vs 40%). The reaction prevalence rates were highest for nickel sulfate (20.7%), fragrance mix I (7.1%), Myroxylon pereirae (6.9%), potassium dichromate (6.9%), cobalt chloride (6.8%), methylchloroisothiazolinone/methylisothiazolinone (MCI/MI; 6.4%), MI (3.7%), colophonium (3.5%), fragrance mix II (3.2%), and formaldehyde (3.2%). Myroxylon pereirae reaction prevalence increased from 5% in 2010 to 9% in 2017 and that for methyldibromo glutaronitrile from 3.1% to 4.6%. MCI/MI and MI reactions decreased in prevalence after 2014. Nickel reaction prevalence decreased among females aged 10 to 19 years.

Conclusions: Nickel remains the most common sensitizing agent, with reaction prevalence decreasing among females younger than 20 years. The changes in MCI/MI and MI reaction prevalence mirrored those in Europe. The register can reveal changes in contact allergy prevalence over time among patients patch tested in Sweden.

Objective: The mechanisms behind building-related symptoms have remained unknown despite many years of research. It is known that environmental and psychosocial factors are of importance. Some receptors in the Transient Receptor Potential family elicit the same symptoms when stimulated, as reported by those suffering from building-related symptoms. The aim of this study was to compare capsaicin sensitivity between people with and without skin symptoms. A second aim was to investigate perceived stress among individuals with different levels of capsaicin sensitivity.

Methods: People referred to an occupational health care unit and judged to have building-related symptoms by a physician answered a questionnaire regarding their symptoms. Solutions with different capsaicin concentrations were applied to participants' nasolabial folds. Self-reported stress and burnout were assessed using two questionnaires: the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Questionnaire (SMBQ).

Results: We found that people who reported facial erythema or itching, stinging, tight or burning facial skin were more sensitive than those without symptoms and similarities with Sensitive Skin are discussed. We also found that participants who reacted to the lowest capsaicin concentrations scored significantly higher on scales for stress and burnout.

Conclusions: We found associations between sensitivity to capsaicin and skin symptoms among people with building-related symptoms, as well as associations between capsaicin sensitivity and perceived stress/burnout.

Background: In Sweden, cobalt chloride 0.5% has been included in the baseline series since the mid‐1980s. A recent study from Stockholm showed that cobalt chloride 1% petrolatum (pet.) was more suitable than 0.5%. Cobalt chloride at 1.0% has been patch tested for decades in many European countries and around the world.

Objectives: To study the suitability of patch testing to cobalt 1.0% vs 0.5% and to analyze the co‐occurrence of allergy to cobalt, chromium, and nickel.

Results: Contact allergy to cobalt was shown in 90 patients (6.6%). Eighty (5.9%) patients tested positive to cobalt 1.0%. Thirty‐seven of the 90 patients (41.1%) with cobalt allergy were missed by cobalt 0.5% and 10 (0.7%) were missed by cobalt 1.0% (P < .001). No case of patch test sensitization was reported. Allergy to chromium was seen in 2.6% and allergy to nickel in 13.3%. Solitary allergy to cobalt without nickel allergy was shown in 61.1% of cobalt‐positive individuals. Female patients had larger proportions of positive reactions to cobalt (P = .036) and nickel (P < .001) than males.

Conclusion: The results speak in favor of replacing cobalt chloride 0.5% with cobalt chloride 1.0% pet. in the Swedish baseline series, which will be done 2021.

Building related health effects or symptoms (BRS), known also as sick-building syndrome (SBS), are a phenomenon that is not well understood. In this study, air samples from 51 rooms associated with BRS and 34 control rooms were collected on multi-sorbent tubes and analyzed by a non-target approach using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography and high-resolution mass spectrometry techniques. The large amount of data gathered was analyzed using multivariate statistics (principle component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares (PLS)).

This new analysis approach revealed that in rooms where people experienced BRS, petrochemicals and chemicals emitted from plastics were abundant, whereas in rooms where people did not experience BRS, flavor and fragrance compounds were abundant. Among the petrochemicals benzene and 2-butoxyethanol were found in higher levels in rooms where people experienced BRS. The levels of limonene were sometimes in the range of reported odor thresholds, and similarly 3-carene and beta-myrcene were found in higher concentrations in indoor air of rooms where people did not experience BRS. It cannot be ruled out that these compounds may have influenced the perceived air quality. However, the overall variability in air concentrations was large and it was not possible to accurately predict if the air in a particular room could cause BRS or not.

This study investigated whether more patients with contact allergies were detected by patch testing with mercapto mix with a higher concentration of 2-mercaptobenzothiazolinone (MBT) than the commonly used mercapto mix. A total of 3,143 dermatitis patients in 5 Swedish dermatology departments were patch-tested with 3 mercapto test preparations: MBT 2.0% petrolatum (pet.); mercapto mix 2.0% pet.; and mercapto mix 3.5% pet. Positive reactions to these mercapto mixes varied between 0-0.50%, 0-0.93%, and 0-1.4%, respectively, in the 5 centres. Numerically, mercapto mix 3.5% pet. detected all positive patients and more patch-test positive patients than did the 2 other substances, but the difference was not statistically significant. The authors recommend replacing mercapto mix 2.0% pet. in the Swedish baseline series with mercapto mix 3.5% pet., since the latter also detected those patients who would have been missed because MBT 2.0% is not included in the Swedish baseline series.