Health outcome
Dermatitis
Part of: Skin diseases
Also: dermatitides, eczema, contact dermatitis, irritant dermatitis
Inflammation of the skin — redness, itching, scaling and, when severe, weeping or thickening. The term covers several conditions with different causes, and indoor air research meets it mainly as contact dermatitis and as the atopic form.
Why it matters indoors
The skin meets indoor air over its whole surface, and the two mechanisms at work are worth keeping apart.
Irritant dermatitis is dose-dependent and needs no allergy: repeated contact with detergents, solvents and water damages the barrier, and dry air makes the damage worse by drawing moisture out of the outer layer. It is why the condition is an occupational problem in cleaning, catering and healthcare, and why it worsens in the heating season.
Allergic contact dermatitis needs sensitisation first, to a specific substance — fragrances, preservatives such as the formaldehyde releasers in cosmetics and cleaning products, metals, resins — after which a small exposure is enough.
Atopic dermatitis is a third thing again: a constitutional barrier defect that indoor exposures aggravate rather than cause. Coridum records the condition a study named, and does not translate one into another.
Indoor factors with evidence
| Factor | Effect | Population | Study design | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Particulate matter (PM₂.₅ and PM₁₀) | difference 0.81 (0.39–1.22) per 10 % | dermatology outpatients · city (ambient) | time-series analysis of daily outpatient visits for eczema at a dermatology department in Shanghai against ambient air pollutants and meteorological factors, generalized additive models with single-day and cumulative lags | F-0196 Li et al. Ambient Air Pollution, Meteorological Factors and Outpatient… (2016) | machine |
| Sulfur dioxide (SO₂) | difference 2.22 (1.27–3.16) per 10 % | dermatology outpatients · city (ambient) | time-series analysis of daily outpatient visits for eczema at a dermatology department in Shanghai against ambient air pollutants and meteorological factors, generalized additive models with single-day and cumulative lags | F-0197 Li et al. Ambient Air Pollution, Meteorological Factors and Outpatient… (2016) | machine |
| Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) | difference 2.31 (1.17–3.45) per 10 % | dermatology outpatients · city (ambient) | time-series analysis of daily outpatient visits for eczema at a dermatology department in Shanghai against ambient air pollutants and meteorological factors, generalized additive models with single-day and cumulative lags | F-0198 Li et al. Ambient Air Pollution, Meteorological Factors and Outpatient… (2016) | machine |
Each row is one Finding — a sentence as printed in one study, recorded with its page in the Coridum Knowledge Base. Follow the Finding number for the exact wording and the citation. Checked says who verified the row: machine means every automatic check passed and the surrounding text was read; person means someone read the sentence in the document. Rows are re-checked by a person over time. The studies are curated in the Coridum Knowledge Base; the reading of them together is a Claim, shown separately.
Identifiers
- MeSH
- D003872
Cite this page
Coridum Research. Dermatitis. Coridum Knowledge G-0163, 16 September 2026. https://coridum.com/k/G-0163/