Cross sensitivity in colour developers

Colour developers are widely used and contact dermatitis and lichen planus-like eruptions from them are well-known. As a result of automation, there have been few recent reports of contact dermatitis from colour developers. We describe here 4 cases of dermatoses from Kodak CD4 colour developer and study their cross sensitivity to other colour developers and PPD. Attempts were made to determine the purity of the patch test allergens to ensure that cross sensitivity was not the result of contamination and decomposition of the allergens.