Hopkins Stops Using Latex Gloves

[TZ]

BALTIMORE (AP) - Johns Hopkins Hospital was believed to be the first hospital to use latex gloves for surgery, now it is among the first to toss them away.
The hospital says it is stopped using them last year because of rare allergic reactions. Surgeons now use gloves made of synthetic materials.

The reactions are potentially fatal, though physicians aren't aware of deaths at Hopkins.

http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=25&sid=1326641
Anybody here ever encounter latex allergies? I haven't but I hear they can devleop suddenly and be very severe.
Sigh. I now wear nitrile gloves in my lab but I have always found latex to be much less restrictive in the ability to manipulate things. I have to wear one size larger to be comfortable....

[zanne]

1. I hate those "blue" gloves....

Hospitals and doctor's offices around here don't wear latex anymore. I've heard about the incredible reactions some people can get suddenly and I have a hard time trying to find those blue gloves to buy.
(I just use them around the house and especially for gardening).

[TZ]

5. Actually mine are a very pretty purple..

Thats the one thing I like about them..I make quite the fashion statement with the purple gloves and the shiny white lab coat...:D

[mike_c]

2. we use nitrile too....

But I hate wearing both, frankly. Nothing like that sweaty gloved feeling.

[Olney Blue]

3. Thanks for the link!

What about condoms? Aren't most still made of latex?

[TZ]

6. I believe that there are latex free available....n/t

[SidDithers]

7. But are they pretty purple nitrile?...

:evilgrin:

Sid

[zalinda]

4. I can't wear any type of plastic glove

My hands sweat so fast that within 5 minutes, I have water dripping out of the glove. Needless to say, I couldn't follow certain career paths.

zalinda

[global1]

8. Have You Ever Tried Wearing Glove Liners?......

They are meant to be worn under the glove to absorb the moisture and perspiration from the skin. I think we get them from a company in Ohio named HCL. They work well - solved my problem.

[lizerdbits]

9. I find latex easier for finer tasks too

We have some thicker dark brown ones that are latex (I think they're more common among the animal handlers due to thickness) that I tried and got bumps on my hands. I thought it was a latex issue but when I wore the regular lighter ones I was fine. Maybe it was they dye. :shrug:

[Warpy]

19. I always did, too, especially the sterile gloves

that came in precise sizes.

Latex allergy is still pretty rare. They need to offer both types of gloves.

When my hospital switched to plastic gloves, I found I could no longer start IVs with gloves on. I had to just hope the patient wasn't going to jump for the ceiling and stick me with the IV cannula I'd just tried to insert. I was very lucky in that I never got stuck.

[dropkickpa]

10. I'm allergic

Not the drop dead allergic (yet, hopefully never) but I break out in an oozing blistery rash wherever it touches, my airways tighten up, my eyes get itchy and swollen, etc. Lucky for me, I worked in my brother's tattoo shop at the time and 2 of the guys who worked there were allergic, also, and helped me out. It can often be a cumulative allergy, showing up after repeated and/or prolonged exposure (50+ glove changes a day for a couple years did it for me, and one of my brothers, too).

Poor Dropkid showed up with it at age 2 (mild reactions to balloons, bandaids at a friends, etc), and really badly at age 3. Because I'm allergic I never have anything with latex in my home, use latex free band-aids, etc etc. At age 3 Dropkid was at my mom's and found a new package of dish gloves and put a pair on for about 1 minute before my mom snatched them off of her and washed her hands. Her hands still ballooned up, and she got big oozy blisters (almost looked like burns they were so bad) that didn't stop for about a week. She was in agony and, needless to say, my mom cleared her whole house of anything latex after that.

It's a *constant* fight to get doctors, nurses, dentists, etc for both her and me to NOT wear latex. I wish more places *would* do it. There ARE alternatives, they just cost more than cheap ass malaysian slave labor gloves.

I've taught Dropkid to be hyper vigilent, which has saved her a lot of exposure. She still sometimes tries to give into temptation, especially with balloons, but everyone she spends time with is aware of her allergy.

I wear nitrile gloves and have no problem with them, I've done mouse surgeries, very tiny fiddly work, etc. I don't have a choice so I HAD to get used to them. On the couple of occasions where I didn't have a choice and HAD to wear latex (emergencies where there wan't time for me to run and find a pair of nitrile, afterwards was always fun) I've found that I don't like the way they feel. They're alternately slippery and sticky, so my preference is for the nitrile now, anyhow.

They make polyurethane condoms which don't, to me at least, feel any different than the latex ones did (let me tell you, my reaction to those was NOT fun).

[Olney Blue]

11. I never knew how dangerous this allergy could be to children...

thanks for telling us your story.

btw, is that dropkid in your sig line? :hi:

[dropkickpa]

13. Yep, that's her in all her glory

She LOVED that Halloween costume!

[Olney Blue]

16. She's cute....

:)

[dropkickpa]

17. Thanks

I made her myself :rofl:

[TZ]

12. That does put a different spin on things

Thanks for sharing. But it is the awful truth that I have yet to meet a nitrile glove that fits me correctly (I have very small hands). Since I am in a diagnostics lab that doesn't interact with the public at least thats not so much of an issue..

As for the latex condom issue..and the thought of what that reaction might be....:scared:

[dropkickpa]

14. Try medline's aloe-touch brand

They run a tad bit small and the finger lengths seem to be more realistic for smaller hands (no floppy fingertips). They cost a little more, but the comfort factor is well worth it.

[Evoman]

15. In my lab, we have both.

We've had two people in the lab who were allergic to the latex gloves. The one girl wasn't too bad...she would just develop a mild rash. The other co-worker, a nervous little guy who is now in medicine, would start developing pustules. It was really gross. So we bought a bunch of nitrile gloves too.

I myself find the latex ones a lot more comfortable than the nitrile. But I wear both...sometimes we run out of one or the other, so I wear the other kind because I'm too lazy to go get some more. We had a couple of samples that some companies gave us sitting around the lab, and one type was polyurethane. I actually really liked those as well....they were great for PCR since there wasn't a lot of powder or other crap on them, and they were pretty soft. However, science stores doesn't carry them and we get our gloves from there for cheap so....

[dropkickpa]

18. We carry both at work

And, now that I am supervisor and doing the ordering, I'm switching other things to latex free also(still carry latex gloves, non-powder only, for those that prefer it). A lot of items I've found aren't any different in price (hair bonnets, shoe covers, etc). I would love to get the poly gloves in, but our vendors don't carry them.

[Evoman]

20. Where do you work?

And do you want to hire me :evilgrin:?

[dropkickpa]

22. A cancer research facility

And if you can clean mouse boxes, you're hired!

[uppityperson]

21. Huh, I didn't know places still used latex.