Allergenicity of epoxy-reactive diluents in the guinea pig.

The sensitizer in epoxy resins may be the actual resin, the hardeners, the reactive diluents or the additives. An epoxy-reactive diluent, Epoxide No. 8, recently introduced on the Swedish market, and described by the manufacturer as nonsensitizing was checked for allergenicity by "the guinea pig maximization test". Judging from the results, Epoxide No. 8 in the guinea pig test was even more allergenic than butylglycidyl ether, another reactive diluent known to be a human skin sensitizer. The potential allergenicity of Epoxide No. 8 was also indicated by the fact that butylglycidyl ether, cresylglycidyl ether and epoxy resin elicitated positive reactions in animals sensitized to Epoxide No. 8.