Chemical leukoderma: Fact or fancy

Leukoderma is reported to be caused by chemicals. This type of depigmentation and the chemicals that might cause it have not been clearly documented. We attempted to address this issue by reviewing the Western literature related to this topic. We propose that chemical leukoderma be defined as depigmentation that is caused by the cutaneous application of specific chemicals that destroy the epidermal melanocytes. We found data that suggest a group of agents are capable of killing epidermal melanocytes. Most chemicals in this group are the phenols with an aliphatic or aromatic side chain. There are no data to confirm that chemically pure hydroquinone itself can cause depigmentation. Therefore, we exclude pure hydroquinone as a cause of clinical leukoderma. We propose the hypothesis that some forms of vitiligo vulgaris are in fact chemical leukoderma caused by unidentified melanocytotoxic chemicals in the environment.