Dermal (Skin)

Dermal SystemThe skin that covers your body is called the dermal system. The skin is the barrier that protects the body from hazardous substances in the environment. Also, skin helps keep the body from losing electrolytes and fluids. Skin is the body's largest organ. It is made up of several parts: the epidermis, dermis, hypodermis, and hair, hair follicles, nails, sebaceous and sweat glands, and other skin structures.

Click on a substance to go to the health effects chapter in the toxicological profile. Then, search on any target organ system to find the health effects information on that system.

Please Note: The following links point to PDFs containing the information defining the health effects of the selected substance. This PDF format requires Adobe Acrobat Reader external icon , which can be downloaded free from the Adobe web site.

Page last reviewed: March 03, 2011