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Although the allergy has been reported since the 1920s, it wasn't until the late 1980s-when health care workers began massive use of gloves to fight HIV and other bloodborne disease transmission-that the number of latex allergies began to rise.

In the mid-1980s, Barb Fritchie, RN, scrubbed-in daily in a Colorado cardiac cath lab and wore latex gloves for most of the workday. Throughout the next few years, she developed hand dermatitis. Sometimes, she would arrive at work and start to feel awful. It all came to a head on Memorial Day 1990.

"We were doing an emergency procedure in the middle of the night," Fritchie said. "I got very sick to my stomach, very lightheaded and felt like I was going to pass out." She broke scrub, went into the back room and lay down on the floor. "I actually went into anaphylaxis and had to have epinephrine and airway and everything. From that day on, I didn't work in the hospital."

With asthmalike symptoms and hives, she sought the help of an allergist. Office testing confirmed that Fritchie had both a skin reaction to latex and a severe allergy to latex proteins. It changed her life. "I was actually off work for a year and a half," she said. "I had been to several different occupational evaluators and was told I would not be able to work anywhere." Fortunately, the allergist she saw appreciated Fritchie's nursing skill and agreed to make his office latex-free. She's been working there ever since.

It's been more than a decade since Fritchie developed her latex allergy. Although more people today know about the potential effects of latex exposure, nurses in many hospitals are still running into obstacles as they try to protect themselves.

Serious problem

Nurses who wear rubber gloves and find that they have sore, cracked or itchy hands may have an irritant contact dermatitis or allergic contact dermatitis. Both are reactions to chemicals used in processing latex. But a true latex allergy is a reaction to the proteins in natural rubber latex. Symptoms occur within minutes of exposure and may include skin rash, hives, flushing, itching, asthma or some of the more serious signs of anaphylaxis that Fritchie described.

Although the allergy has been reported since the 1920s, it wasn't until the late 1980s-when health care workers began massive use of gloves to fight HIV and other bloodborne disease transmission-that the number of latex allergies began to rise.

Experts now estimate that less than 1 percent of the general population is allergic to latex, while 8 percent to 12 percent of health care workers are sensitive to the protein, according to Susan Wilburn, MPH, RN, senior specialist for occupational safety and health at the American Nurses Association.

"And up to 17 percent of the worker groups that are highly exposed-like operating room personnel or L&D nurses-are sensitive. People who have about 30 glove changes a day," she said.

Wilburn said the problem is serious. "There are 2.5 million working nurses. Ten percent of that is 250,000. That's a horrendous number of people who are sensitive to the protein and, as a result, potentially can't work safely until changes are made in their work environment," she said.

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