Occupational Dermatitis — Protecting Trade Workers' Skin From Cement and Wet Work (2026)

What Occupational Dermatitis Actually Is

Dermatitis (also called eczema) is inflammation of the skin. When it's caused or made worse by something a person comes into contact with at work, it's called occupational contact dermatitis. It typically shows up on the hands, wrists and forearms — the parts of the body that touch materials all day — and presents as redness, dryness, scaling, itching, blistering, cracking and weeping. There are two distinct types, and the difference matters enormously for how you manage it.

Irritant Contact Dermatitis

This is the more common type. It's caused by repeated contact with substances that physically damage the skin's protective outer barrier — water (so-called "wet work"), soaps and detergents, solvents, oils, and cement. It builds up over time. A single exposure rarely causes it; it's the daily repetition that wears the skin down until the barrier fails. The good news is that irritant dermatitis usually improves if you remove or reduce the exposure and let the skin recover.

"Wet work" is the key phrase here. Skin that is wet for long periods, or that is repeatedly wetted and dried, loses its natural oils and cracks. Plasterers, tilers, bricklayers and painters who wash their hands constantly through the day, or whose hands stay damp inside gloves, are all doing wet work whether they realise it or not.

Allergic Contact Dermatitis

This is a sensitisation — and it is far more serious. Once a worker's immune system becomes sensitised to a substance, the reaction is permanent. There is no "building up tolerance" and no cure. From then on, even tiny amounts of that substance trigger an allergic flare, and the person often has to stop working with it entirely. Common trade sensitisers include chromate (hexavalent chromium) in cement, epoxy resins and their hardeners, and isocyanates found in some paints, foams and adhesives.

This is why prevention is everything. You cannot treat your way out of allergic contact dermatitis once it has developed — you can only avoid the trigger. A skilled tradesperson who becomes allergic to cement may be unable to continue in their trade at all. Protecting workers before sensitisation happens is the only effective strategy.

Why Cement Is Such a Serious Hazard

Wet cement and concrete are among the most damaging substances on a construction site for skin, for two separate reasons. First, they are highly alkaline and caustic. Wet cement has a pH around 12–13 — similar to oven cleaner — and prolonged contact can cause not just irritant dermatitis but serious chemical cement burns. Second, cement contains hexavalent chromium (chromate), which is a well-known skin sensitiser and can trigger permanent allergic contact dermatitis.

Cement sold in the UK and EU is required to have reduced (or have a reducing agent added to lower) its soluble chromate content, which has cut the rate of new chromate allergies. But the risk has not been eliminated — the reducing agent has a shelf life, and the caustic alkalinity of wet cement remains regardless. Reduced-chromate cement is safer, not safe.

Cement burns deserve specific attention because they are an acute injury, not a slow build-up. They commonly happen when a worker kneels in wet concrete and it soaks through trousers and knee pads, or when screed or concrete gets inside boots and sits against the skin for hours. The worker often feels little at first — the burn develops over time as the alkali eats into the skin, sometimes reaching the point of ulceration and requiring skin grafts. Anyone working in or near wet concrete needs waterproof, well-fitting protection and a strict habit of washing off any splash immediately and changing soaked clothing or boots without delay.

Other Common Causes Across the Trades

Cement gets the headlines, but it is far from the only culprit. Different trades face different hazards, and a worker who moves between tasks accumulates exposure from several sources.

• Epoxy resins and hardeners: Used in resin flooring, coatings, adhesives and repairs. Both the resin and the hardener are potent sensitisers — among the most common causes of allergic contact dermatitis in construction after cement.
• Solvents and thinners: Used by painters, decorators and floor layers to clean tools and skin. They strip the skin's natural oils rapidly and are a major cause of irritant dermatitis. Never use solvents or thinners to clean hands.
• Cutting and machine oils: Mechanics, fabricators and groundworkers in repeated contact with oils and metalworking fluids commonly develop oil folliculitis and irritant dermatitis.
• Wet work and frequent hand-washing: Plasterers, tilers, bricklayers and painters whose hands are wet for long stretches, or who wash repeatedly with harsh soaps, are doing classic wet work that degrades the skin barrier.
• Wood dusts, fibreglass and some treated timbers: Can cause mechanical irritation and, in some cases, allergic reactions.

The Legal Framework — COSHH and Your Duties

The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) is the law that bites here. Substances that can damage the skin count as "hazardous to health" under COSHH, and the regulations require you to assess the risk and control exposure — skin contact is explicitly within scope, not just things you breathe in. A COSHH assessment for cement, epoxy, solvents and similar materials is a legal requirement, not optional paperwork.

COSHH sets out a hierarchy of control: first try to eliminate or substitute the hazard, then control exposure at source, and only rely on personal protective equipment (PPE) such as gloves as a last line of defence rather than the first. Reaching straight for gloves while ignoring whether the contact could be avoided altogether is the wrong order — and it's a common audit finding.

The HSE summarises practical skin protection as the Avoid, Protect, Check (APC) approach. It's a simple framework you can train your whole team on, and it maps directly onto your COSHH duties.

Avoid — Stop the Contact Happening

The most effective control is to stop skin touching the hazard in the first place. This is the "Avoid" step and it should always be your starting point, because it removes the risk rather than just managing it.

• Use mechanical aids and longer tools: Wheelbarrows, mixers, pumps and long-handled tools keep hands away from wet cement and other materials. Mixing methods that reduce splashing and direct handling cut exposure significantly.
• Plan tasks to reduce wet work: Batch jobs so workers aren't repeatedly wetting and drying their hands. Provide enough tools so people aren't constantly washing them — and their hands — through the day.
• Substitute where you can: Where a less hazardous product does the same job, use it. Reduced-chromate cement, ready-mixed products and lower-solvent paints all reduce exposure.
• Keep dry clothing and boots available: So a worker who gets concrete in a boot or soaks their knees can change immediately rather than carrying on.

Protect — Gloves, Skin Care and Washing

Choosing the Right Gloves

Gloves only protect if they're the right material for the hazard and they're actually worn and changed. There is no universal glove. Nitrile is a good general choice for many trade chemicals and resists oils and solvents better than latex, and it avoids the latex allergy problem. For wet cement, you need waterproof gloves long enough to stop material running down inside them. Always check the chemical the glove is rated against — a glove that resists one substance may be useless against another.

Gloves must be changed regularly. A torn or contaminated glove is worse than none, because it can trap the hazard against the skin. Sweat inside gloves is itself a form of wet work, so for long tasks consider thin cotton liner gloves and rotate to let the skin breathe.

Barrier Creams Are Not a Substitute for Gloves

This is a critical and widely misunderstood point. So-called "barrier creams" or pre-work creams do not form a reliable barrier against cement, solvents or resins, and they must never be used in place of gloves. Where they have a role, it is in making the skin easier to clean afterwards — not in keeping the hazard off the skin. Treat gloves as the protection and creams as skin care, never the other way round.

After-work moisturising (conditioning) creams, on the other hand, are genuinely valuable. Applied at the end of a shift and after washing, they help restore the skin's natural oils and repair the barrier that the day's work has stripped. Supplying decent moisturiser and encouraging the team to use it is one of the cheapest, most effective things you can do.

Good Washing and Drying

Hands should be washed with a mild skin cleanser and warm (not scalding) water — never with solvents, thinners or harsh abrasive hand cleaners, which strip the skin further. Crucially, hands must be dried thoroughly; leaving them damp is itself wet work. Provide proper washing facilities, mild cleanser, soft towels or dryers, and moisturiser at the point of use, not in a cupboard back at the yard.

Check — Skin Checks and Health Surveillance

The "Check" step is about catching problems early, before irritant dermatitis tips over into something chronic or a worker becomes sensitised. Early dermatitis is far easier to manage than established disease, so regular checking pays off.

• Encourage self-checks: Train workers to look at their own hands regularly and report early signs — dryness, redness, itching, small cracks — rather than waiting until the skin is weeping and split.
• Responsible-person skin checks: A trained supervisor or appointed person can carry out simple regular skin checks across the team, recording findings and flagging anyone who needs follow-up.
• Health surveillance: Where the risk assessment shows a real ongoing risk of dermatitis that can't be fully controlled, COSHH may require formal health surveillance — structured, recorded skin checks, sometimes overseen by an occupational health professional.
• Act on findings: A skin check is pointless if nothing changes when a problem is found. Early signs should trigger a review of controls for that person and that task.

Reporting Under RIDDOR

Occupational dermatitis can be reportable under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR). Where a worker is diagnosed by a doctor with occupational contact dermatitis linked to a known cause at work — cement, epoxy, solvents and similar — that diagnosis can trigger a RIDDOR report. Keep diagnosis letters and fit notes, and check whether each case meets the reporting threshold rather than assuming "it's only a rash". A cement burn that results in the worker being away from work or unable to do their normal duties may also be reportable as an injury.

Beyond the legal duty, treating a confirmed case as a signal matters. One diagnosed case usually means the controls have failed for that task — which means others doing the same work are at risk too. Use it to review and tighten your APC controls across the team.

Quick Reference: Causes, Trades and Controls

Building Skin Protection Into How You Run Jobs

None of this works as a poster on the wall. Skin protection sticks when it's built into the routine of every job: gloves and moisturiser on the van as standard, a COSHH assessment attached to each material, a quick skin check as part of toolbox talks, and a clear rule that anyone with concrete in a boot or split, weeping hands stops and sorts it rather than pushing through. The cost is trivial — gloves, mild cleanser and a tub of moisturiser — against the cost of losing an experienced tradesperson who can never touch cement again.

Keep records too. A short note of which COSHH assessments cover which materials, when skin checks were done, and what PPE you issued is exactly what you'll need if a claim or an HSE visit ever lands. It also demonstrates, to your team and to clients, that you take their health seriously — which is increasingly something main contractors check before they let you on site.