Allergy-free latex alternative is promising, researchers say
Researchers have discovered a natural, and apparently hypoallergenic, alternative to the latex currently used in medical gloves and household products. However, products made from the alternative latex have yet to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and are not expected on the market for four to six years.
The new, allergy-free latex comes from the guayule shrub, a 3-foot-tall desert plant that grows in the Southwest United States and Northern Mexico. In lab tests, guayule latex did not trigger allergens in the blood of lab mice and humans susceptible to the allergy. The findings were reported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine last November in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
The USDA patented the extraction process and licensed Yulex Corp. in Philadelphia to produce items like rubber gloves and catheters out of the hypoallergenic latex. Yulex says it has developed prototype products that are just as elastic and protective as the standard latex versions. But Dennis Ownby, MD, director of the allergy research laboratory at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, said the USDA is still searching for a way to make guayule latex a financially viable option.
“It depends on whether this can be cost-competitive with latex harvested from the rubber tree,” Ownby said. “If we could exchange them on a wholesale basis, then nurses who are latex sensitive might be able to continue working.”
Allergic reactions to latex range from rashes to anaphylactic shock and death. According to Ownby, about 6.5 percent of the general population is sensitive to latex, while 9 to 10 percent of healthcare workers have developed the sensitivity.
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