Ritika Sinha of Patliputra was horrified to find red blotches on her skin on Holi evening on Monday. Her worst fear came true when her dermatologist confirmed on Tuesday that the skin eruption was the effect of playing with chemical colours and artificial dyes.

"My skin got covered with red blotches, which itched continuously and made me extremely irritable. The dermatologist's today assessed the problem and attributed it to chemical colours."

Like every year, Holi revellers in the state capital are reeling from the hazard of being a bit adventurous and playing with chemical colours.

Chambers of private physicians, mostly dermatologists and eye specialists, in Patna on Tuesday were overflowing with innumerable cases of patients with skin complications and eye infection among others, mostly associated with playing Holi with chemical-laced colours during the festival of colours.

Amar Kant Jha Amar, a doctor in the skin department of Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), said of around 200 patients who turned up in the hospital's outpatient department on Tuesday, 22 were related to playing with chemical colours.

"Twenty-two patients were found to be suffering from skin infections and allergy related with playing with toxic colours. The symptoms varied from redness, exfoliation and erosion of skin, eczema, swelling and itching. A certain patient had such a serious itching complication that we finally had to administer an injection as medicines did not work at all."

"It is best to avoid chemical colours and better to play with organic colours. In case if one finds any symptom related to skin infection or allergy, he/she should try to wash off that body part for five to 10 minutes with water."

"However, one should try to remove colour gently just as applying moisturiser on skin. Excessive scrubbing of skin to remove colour and dyes can seriously harm the skin and even result in abrasions," said Amar.

Abhishek Jha, another dermatologist and a private practitioner who has his clinic on Boring Road, said he received eight cases on Tuesday in which patients had developed skin problems owing to playing with synthetic colours.

According to Abhishek, one of his patients on Tuesday morning even had bruises on skin (as a result of playing with the chemical colours), which resembled a cut mark made with a knife.

"The patient had played Holi with green and metallic colours, which had fine particles of lead. He now has cut marks all over his body because of being rubbed with lead containing colour and dyes. Fine particles of lead are mixed in chemical colours to give them a shiny look. Bruises and skin infection are minor problems, which one might face after playing with these chemical-laden colours but in the long term, these colours can result in multi-system complications," said Abhishek.

He added: "If the colour somehow gets into your left set of teeth, it can enter the digestion track and trigger indigestion and other problems. If the quantity of colour is more, then it can affect the kidney and other body parts."

Ophthalmologist Sunil Kumar Singh added that he had received three cases of eye infection on Tuesday, which he assessed being caused by artificial colours.

"Patients complained of symptoms such as redness and irritation of eye and conjunctivitis among others. We prescribed an anti-biotic and lubricating eye drops to patients."