BARRIER CREAMS

Press, Volume C, Issue 29524, 27 May 1961, Page 8

BARRIER CREAMS

Doctor On Effects

A few years ago barrier creams were hailed as miracle creams, but their performance has not come up to expectations, writes F. Ray Bettley, M.D., F.R.C.P., in the May issue of the British Medical Association’s magazine. “Family Doctor.” “Barrier cream® are substances intended to be applied to the skin before starting work. They are supposed to leave on the skin a thin, imperceptible layer that is not penetrated by irritants.

“The use of barrier cream has become common in industry. but how common has it become for the housewife? From the questions I have myself asked housewives who come to me with dermatitis. I have the impression that barrier creams are remarkably little used by the ordinary British housewife. “In my own opinion because they have little to offer. Many kinds of laboratory experiment have been set up to find out how much barrier effect smearing creams on the skin has," he says.

“Generally speaking, the results of these tests have been disappointing. It is, of course, not easy to imagine a substance that will form a layer on the hands so thin that it cannot be felt, and yet so durable that it will provide a barrier against irritants for several hours while the hands are being used for work.

“When laboratory experiments have been done it has usually been found that a barrier effect can be achieved. But only with thick layers of the cream and only for a comparatively short time. A matter of minutes or a fraction of an hour rather than for several hours at a time. “The use of barrier creams in industry has not been proved to make any material difference to the development of dermatitis. Barrier creams have now been in pretty general use for 15 years and if good evidence of their value has not emerged, and in fact it has not, it is beginning to look as though it does not exist. Yes, it was a lovely dream but, alas, it doesn’t seem to have come true,” Dr. Bettley says.