Glossary → Skin sensitizer (H317)

Skin sensitizer (H317).

h317, may cause an allergic skin reaction

H317 is the GHS and CLP hazard statement "May cause an allergic skin reaction", carrying the exclamation-mark pictogram and the signal word Warning, and it lands in section 2 of the safety data sheet. It sits on a lot of water-based textile chemistry, because the preservatives that stop a water-carried ink going sour are frequently isothiazolinones. The CMIT/MIT reaction mass has a harmonised H317 in Annex VI of Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008, and Annex II point 2.8 of the same regulation makes a mixture that is not itself classified as sensitising still carry EUH208, "Contains (name of sensitising substance). May produce an allergic reaction", once a sensitiser reaches 0,1%. So an ink can be sold as water-based, plastisol-free and low-odour and still be the thing that sensitises a printer. Sensitisation has no dose you can manage down to: once someone reacts, a trace sets it off, and that operator is done with that chemistry for good.

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