A 14-year-old boy who complained of a chronic rash on his left arm and hand has
been diagnosed with a “tefillin rash” – caused by the chemical potassium
dichromate, which is used to process the black straps of the
phylacteries.
An article in the September issue of the Hebrew-language
medical journal
Harefuah (of the Israel Medical Association) by doctors at
Sha’are Zedek Medical Center describes the unusual case.
RELATED:Jews wearing tefillin cause alarm aboard airplaneThe boy was
described as the youngest person to be recorded with such an allergic reaction
to leather tefillin straps. Other victims have been as old as 77 (such a man was
diagnosed after 20 years of suffering from allergic contact
dermatitis).
Others were devout men, including rabbis, who wear their
phylacteries not only to recite the morning prayers but also keep them on all
day as an “extra mitzva.”
“Tefillin allergy” is relatively rare in
Israel. It is due not to the tefillin themselves, but to the chemicals used to
process the leather straps. Almost all cases involve the phylacteries
worn on the arm, but there are rarer cases in which those worn around the head
and touching the neck also cause rashes there.
The rash appeared in the
boy about a year after he first began to don phylacteries for his bar mitzva,
wrote Drs. Pinhas Hashkes and Efraim Sagi of the Jerusalem
hospital.
In most cases, the inflammatory response appears in the area of
the middle finger, around which the straps are wrapped. It is less common on the
forearm and much less frequent on the nape of the neck. In some patients, the
rash appears in the form of “straps,” but in others, the rash is not under the
places on the skin that are in contact with the straps.
According to
estimates, about a quarter of the male Jewish population in Israel wears
tefillin on a regular basis. But as they are worn for less than an hour at a
time, the allergic response does not appear in all users with sensitivity to the
chemical.
Some who were diagnosed turned to their rabbis for permission
to wear their phylacteries over their sleeves instead of their bare arm, while
others place clear cling plastic under the leather straps. In addition, a Bnei
Brak shop called Machon Pe’er sells tefillin processed without the offending
chemical.