Systemic Toxicity Caused by Absorption of Drugs and Chemicals Through Skin

Department of Dermatology, School of Medicine, University of California San Francisco,

San Francisco, California, U.S.A.

INTRODUCTION

The skin forms an effective two-way barrier that controls the loss of chemicals from

the body as well as the absorption of many foreign chemicals into the body.

However, many chemicals do enter via the skin and some, when specifically

applied to the skin, have been found to be sufficiently well absorbed to produce

systemic toxicity.