Could banning two industrial chemicals put an end to eczema?

One in three Kiwis at some stage experience eczema - an allergic skin condition characterised by dry, itchy, inflamed skin.

Although we still don't know what causes eczema (aka atopic dermatitis), US scientists have discovered it can be triggered by airborne fumes containing two chemicals - isocyanate and xylene.

These pollutants are hard to avoid because they're found in everyday products, including synthetic fabrics, paint and polyurethanes, says American eczema researcher Ian Myles. Detecting them and removing them from our environment would prevent a “big chunk” of new eczema cases, he tells Saturday Morning.

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Eczema can appear at any age, but it usually pops up in children under the age of four, Myles says.

“If you make it to six years of age and you have not developed eczema, you probably never will.”

While most of the skin symptoms of childhood eczema go away with time, that's not a comfort for the many Kiwis desperate for safe, effective treatments.

Detecting which products contain isocyanate and xylene - which in “depressingly small” amounts can induce ezcema - is an important part of the fight against the condition, Myles says.

These two chemicals - which don't seem to cause cancer - operate like "poison" on our skin's natural bacteria, Myles says. They simultaneously shut off protective oil production and send a signal to the brain that we need to scratch something off our skin to protect it.

Due to “unrestricted industrialisation” and a lack of knowledge about their risks, isocyanate and xylene are very hard to avoid in modern life, Myles says.

They're contained in car exhaust, which significantly ups the eczema risk factor for people living close to major highways, but we also unknowingly bring them into our homes.

“It would be very nice to be able to tell a parent ‘This is the type of paint that does have these chemicals in it and this one doesn't’. That would be huge."

Air purifiers tailored to filter out these particular chemicals would be a big help, too.

“It'd be nice to know if there's an air purifier that can genuinely scrub these out of the air, that would be the one that a patient with atopic eczema would want to get. “

While people desperately want to believe a “miracle drug” for eczema will be discovered, that's not going to happen because genetics don’t play a meaningful role in the condition, he says.

“If you waved a magic wand and got rid of [everyone with eczema’s] genetic predispositions, literally nothing would happen.”

While treatments that target the microbiome are promising for the future, topical probiotics which put “good bacteria” back into eczema-affected skin are now working really well for some Americans, Myles says.

"It's not 100 percent effective, but when it works, it looks like the bacteria will start to live on the skin so you don't have to use it forever and ever. The bacteria take up residence on your skin and continue to provide benefits."