Occupational porphyria cutanea tarda due to exposure to symmetrical triazine herbicides

Here we report a case of porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) associated with chronic occupational exposure to symmetrical triazine herbicides (atrazine, simazine) in a 63-year-old male who had been working for more than 30 years in a chemical factory. The history of this patient seems free from-usual PCT-risk or predisposing factors, and until now his disease has responded well to simple venesection, with a dramatic reduction of porphyrin excretion indices and a tendency to normalization of hepatic involvement. A short review of the literatures follows, and chemical structures of symmetrical triazine molecules are compared with those of recognized porphyrogenic compounds. As the natural history of chronic triazine herbicide intoxication has not yet been detailed, we add our case to the list of circumstantial evidence of PCT associated with various aromatic compound exposure.