GB1577926A - Cloth or paper impregnated with skinprotective agents - Google Patents

Description

(54) CLOTH OR PAPER IMPREGNATED WITH SKIN-PROTECTIVE AGENTS (71) We, JOHNSON & JOHNSON, a Corporation organised under the laws of the State of New Jersey, United States of America, of 501 George Street, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States of America, do hereby declarethe invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: The invention relates to a cloth of paper sheet useful in the care of the skin, more particularly of the hand.

In a wide variety of activities and pursuits, for instance in an industrial, domestic or leisure context, the human skin nowadays undergoes exposure to chemical substances of an irritant nature. Such exposure generally results in undesirable effects ranging in different instances from mere discomfort to actual lesions with possible cumulative deterioration of the tissue.

Substances liable to produce such effects in varying degrees at least on the skin of users in continual contact with them are exemplified by some detergent of soap solutions, products used in hair care, photoprocessing chemicals, organic solvents and petroleum products, metallic compounds to which the skin is sensitive such as those of nickel, paints, cements and industrial dusts, and industrial lubricants particularly such as cutting fluids. Skin affected by such irritants may become sensitive to substances not normally in that category.

It is known to incorporate in a composition containing a detergent with skin irritant properties, a so-called mildness additive. British Patent Specification No. 1,221,241 (Cincinnati Milcron) describes such compositions, and includes dimer acids among the recommended mildness additives. It is further known, for instance from British Specification No. 1,359,327 (Cincinnati Milacron), to disperse a skin protective agent in a pharmaceutically acceptable base such as the type used in hand lotions and hand creams.

The skin protective agents proposed in Specification No. 1,359,327 are defined as: A. (a) the unsaturated product obtained by dimerization, trimerization or tetaramerization of a monomeric ethylenically unsaturated C12 to C26 fatty acid, said product containing 2. 3 or 4 carboxyl groups per dimer, trimer or tetramer molecule respectively; (b) the saturated derivative of said unsaturated product; (c) said unsaturated product or saturated derivative thereof wherein one or more of the carboxyl groups are replaced by a substituting group selected from: carboxyl salt; hydroxyl; unsubstituted amino; substituted amino wherein the substituents are aliphatic or aromatic hydrocarbon radicals of 1 to 12 carbon atoms, or said substitutents taken together form a 3 to 6 membered heterocyclic ring with amino nitrogen: unsubstituted amido; substituted amido wherein the substituents are aliphatic or aromatic hydrocarbon radicais of 1 to 12 carbon atoms, or said substitutents taken together form a 3 to 6 membered heterocyclic ring with the amido nitrogen; quaternary ammonium wherein the nitrogen substitutents are alkyl of 1 to 6 carbon atoms; alkyl ester, the alkyl having 1 to 12 carbon atoms; sulfate; sulfonate; phosphate: phosphonate, and (d) derivatives of the compounds defined in (c) above wherein said alkyl, aliphatic or aromatic radicals are further substituted by a carboxyl group or a substituting group as defined in (c) above: or B. esters and polyesters of the dimerized, trimerized or tetramerized fatty acid as defined in A above with a compound selected from; (a) polyoxvalkylene ethers containing 2 to 30 oxyalkylene units in which the oxyalkylene radical contains 2 to 4 carbon atoms; (b) condensation products of alkylene oxides hving 2 to 4 carbon atoms and polyamines having 2 to 4 amino groups and containing 2 to 8 carbon atoms in an aliphatic, cycloaliphatic or aromatic group: and (c) condensation products of ethylene oxide with a hydrophobic base formed by the condensation of propylene oxide with proypylene glycol, said products having the general formula:

wherein a is 1 to 150; B is 15 to 70; and c is 1 to 150.

These oligomeric acids and derivatives are commercially available as such. Their preparation is described for instance in U.S. Patent 3,287,273 (Esso). Preparations of various grades of dimer acid purity with respect to trimer content or monobasic acid content are marketed under the trade name Empol (Unilever Emery).

Industrial dermatitis is a prevalent industrial disease; the exposure of skin, particularly the.hands, to potentially injurious substancesds almost inevitable in modern industrial environments. The usual form of hand protection is either gloves, barrier creams or the like.

In some industrial or other situations it is impractical, inconvenienf, or otherwise fails to gain acceptance, for the known preparations in the nature of lotions or hand creams to be applied when and where they might otherwise be effective, such as where the frequent or constant supply of irritant outweights the supply of protective agent. Operators of machinery employing cutting oil are particularly exposed to such circumstances.

It is an object of the invention to provide convenient and effective means for applying a skin prdtective agent especiaily to hands.

In many operations where the hands are from time to time or continually exposed to irritant substances it is customary to wipe the hands on a cloth, either a rag or other cloth provided for the purpose, or, in some situations more commonly, one one's protective clothing. Recurrent use of the same cloth tends to exacerbate the irritation and in any ease merely wiping of the hands even on a clean cloth does not necessarily deal with the irritation effectively.

According to the present invention we provide an article for skin care which comprises a cloth or paper sheet impregnated with a skin protective agent which is an oligomeric acid compound as hereinbefore defined. Preferably the cloth or paper is impregnated with 0.1 to 25 per cent (e.g. 1O per cent) by weight of the oligomeric acid compound based on the weight of the cloth or paper.

As oligomeric acid we prefer a dimer acid, whether alone or in a mixture and among the dimer acids we prefer that made by dimerization of oleic acid. Accordingly in a preferred embodiment the invention comprises a cloth or paper sheet impregnated with 5 to 20 per cent by weight based. on the weight of the cloth or paper, of dimer acid made by dimerization of oleic acid.

In general the skin protective agent will be applied to the cloth or paper in a liquid carrier which is an oil, such as a mineral oil which is not itself irritant to skin. The oil-acts as a diluent to facilitate application onto the cloth and as a transfer medium for dimer acid onto the user's hand. The oleic acid oligomers have the advantage of being miscible in suitable oils. Light paraffin is particularly suitable.

The cloth maybe of any suitable fabric and gauge and take any suitable form, and paper sheet can be used instead, as already indicated. The cloth or paper sheet should, of course possess some absorbency, without being so highly absorbent that it fails to impart the skin protective agent to the skin when wiped. A particularly useful cloth is a nonwoven fabric, especially a so-called rearranged or bundled nonwoven fabric patterned with holes. e.g.

such as that.known as "J-CLOTM" (registered Trade Mark of JOHNSON & JOHNSON), ;made available in packs of disposable pieces of convenient size, like handkerchiefs. When -impregnated according to the invention and used recurrently for wiping the hands, such a piece of cloth deposits some of the protective agent on the skin, so that it serves to protect the hands and remove discomfort, through an average working day at a drill employing customary quantities of cutting fluid.

The manner of impregnation of the cloth or paper sheet is not significant in itself and is readily achieved by conventional methods, as by dipping, spraying or coating the cloth or paper sheet or treating the initial fibres from which the cloth or paper is made. The use of a gravure print roller is found to be most convenient. The impregnant may consist of the protective agent and oil or it may also comprise other substances if desired. such as other diluents, surfactants. deodorants, or other additives. provided that they do not interfere with the protective action sought after.

Packs of the impregnated cloths may be wrapped in suitable envelopes or containers, e.g.

of polypropylene, resistant.to absorption of or penetration by the skin protective agent of any diluent or additive present.

The following Example is given to illustrate the invention.

Example "Keybak" (registered Trade Mark) nonwoven fabric was treated with a mixture of dimer acid and oil by means of a gravure roller to give an impregnated fabric composed as follows: "Keybak" nonwoven fabric (single ply) 50 g/m2 Dimer acid comprising dimerized acid, (Empol 1010) 5 g/m2 Light liquid paraffin (LP3, Burmah Castrol Ltd) 15 g/m2 The physical properties of the fabric are not significantly affected by the impregnation, except for an increase in tearing strength. In particular the impregnated fabric is pleasant to handle and does not feel wet or greasy.

The impregnated fabric was cut into cloths of size 356 mm x 343 mm. The cloths were used for wiping the hands in a heavy engineering environment by operatives who suffered from skin irritation caused by immersing the hands in mineral oil containing a variety of additives. In all cases, after using the cloths as hand wipes over a period of 4 weeks, the condition of the skin had improved significantly and in some cases appeared to be completely cured. On termination of the use of the hand wipes, in all cases the skin irritation condition returned.

Hand wiping tests have also shown that at the 10 per cent w/w level of dimer acid impregnation of this Example the cloths impart about 0.006 g of dimer acid to the hand when wiped for half a minute. This amount is comparable with the quantity expected to be adequate, from other experimental work, to provide skin protection.

Migration of impregnant between layers or along the fabric during storage is not found to be a problem.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. An article for skin care which comprises a cloth or paper sheet impregnated with a skin protective agent which is an oligomeric acid compound as herein defined.

2. An article according to Claim 1, wherein the cloth or paper is impregnated with 0.1 to 25 per cent by weight of the skin protective agent based on the weight of the cloth or paper.

3. An article according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein the skin protetive agent is a dimer acid made by dimerisation of oleic acid.

4. An article according to Claim 3, wherein the cloth or paper sheet is impregnated with 5 to 20 per cent by weight of the dimer acid.

5. An article according to any preceding Claim wherein the skin protective agent is in an oil as carrier.

6. An article according to Claim 5, wherein the oil is light paraffin oil.

7. An article according to any preceding Claim wherein the cloth is a nonwoven fabric.

8. An article according to Claim 7, containing 10 per cent by weight of skin protective agent.

9. An article for skin care which comprises an impregnated cloth substantially as described in the foregoing Example.

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims (9)

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. with the protective action sought after. Packs of the impregnated cloths may be wrapped in suitable envelopes or containers, e.g. of polypropylene, resistant.to absorption of or penetration by the skin protective agent of any diluent or additive present. The following Example is given to illustrate the invention. Example "Keybak" (registered Trade Mark) nonwoven fabric was treated with a mixture of dimer acid and oil by means of a gravure roller to give an impregnated fabric composed as follows: "Keybak" nonwoven fabric (single ply) 50 g/m2 Dimer acid comprising dimerized acid, (Empol 1010) 5 g/m2 Light liquid paraffin (LP3, Burmah Castrol Ltd) 15 g/m2 The physical properties of the fabric are not significantly affected by the impregnation, except for an increase in tearing strength. In particular the impregnated fabric is pleasant to handle and does not feel wet or greasy. The impregnated fabric was cut into cloths of size 356 mm x 343 mm. The cloths were used for wiping the hands in a heavy engineering environment by operatives who suffered from skin irritation caused by immersing the hands in mineral oil containing a variety of additives. In all cases, after using the cloths as hand wipes over a period of 4 weeks, the condition of the skin had improved significantly and in some cases appeared to be completely cured. On termination of the use of the hand wipes, in all cases the skin irritation condition returned. Hand wiping tests have also shown that at the 10 per cent w/w level of dimer acid impregnation of this Example the cloths impart about 0.006 g of dimer acid to the hand when wiped for half a minute. This amount is comparable with the quantity expected to be adequate, from other experimental work, to provide skin protection. Migration of impregnant between layers or along the fabric during storage is not found to be a problem. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. An article for skin care which comprises a cloth or paper sheet impregnated with a skin protective agent which is an oligomeric acid compound as herein defined.

2. An article according to Claim 1, wherein the cloth or paper is impregnated with 0.1 to 25 per cent by weight of the skin protective agent based on the weight of the cloth or paper.

3. An article according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein the skin protetive agent is a dimer acid made by dimerisation of oleic acid.

4. An article according to Claim 3, wherein the cloth or paper sheet is impregnated with 5 to 20 per cent by weight of the dimer acid.

5. An article according to any preceding Claim wherein the skin protective agent is in an oil as carrier.

6. An article according to Claim 5, wherein the oil is light paraffin oil.

7. An article according to any preceding Claim wherein the cloth is a nonwoven fabric.

8. An article according to Claim 7, containing 10 per cent by weight of skin protective agent.

9. An article for skin care which comprises an impregnated cloth substantially as described in the foregoing Example.