Latex allergies could affect postal workers seeking safety

The Associated Press

SEATTLE — Postal workers and others who handle mail are being offered latex gloves to protect them against anthrax and other potential hazards, but for millions of Americans the gloves themselves can be a problem.

Latex sensitivity is believed to affect at least 1 percent of the population. Continued exposure can increase the risk. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has required warnings about the possible reactions on latex products since 1997.

The problem is widely recognized in the health care community but largely unknown to the general public.

"We have had no discussions about that," said Tom James, a salesman with Sanderson Safety Supply in Seattle, where glove sales have gone up about 30 percent since the anthrax scare began earlier this month.

Aside from commercial accounts, about 500 to 1,000 pairs are being sold daily at the company’s local store, he said. People who buy the gloves — about $8 for a package of 100 — seem unaware of the allergy concerns, he said.

"I’ve never heard the question before," Jamese said.

Hundreds of state and federal latex-allergy lawsuits have been filed.

Reactions range from minor skin irritation to breathing difficulties, vomiting and — very rarely — fatal anaphylactic shock.

The issue dates to the 1970s with the first deaths reported in 1989, according to medical litigation summaries. The FDA warned the health industry about the problem in 1991 and approved a test to detect the allergy in 1995.

About 1 percent of the general population is thought to have latex allergy. But as many as 15 percent of health care workers and more than 34 percent of spina bifida patients, who are repeatedly exposed to latex tips on enema bottles, are estimated by the FDA to have the problem.

Use of protective gloves soared after AIDS was discovered in the 1980s, and public health specialists urged the use of latex gloves and condoms to prevent transmission of the virus through infected blood or semen.

The illness develops from a reaction to a protein found in latex, the sap of rubber trees, said Lola Johnston, medical-marketing director for Best Manufacturing of Menlo, Ga., a major U.S. glove maker.

Johnston said glove inquiries have soared since recent anthrax threats began appearing. Many have come from distributors trying to fill government contracts calling for orders of 12 million or more gloves, she said. Best can make more than 1 billion pairs of medical gloves a year, Johnston noted.

Best also produces a glove made of nitrile, a man-made rubber polymer the company introduced in 1991. Other manufacturers also have begun making nitrile gloves.

Public Health-Seattle &King County isn’t recommending purchase of gloves or gas masks, although sales of both are zooming.

A gas mask would provide protection only if it were worn continually, and that’s not feasible, said agency spokesman James Apa. Gloves may be useful for sorting mail, but there’s no recommendation they be worn by the general public, he said.

In July, latex balloons were banned at three Oregon hospitals because of allergy concerns.