Understanding latex allergies – Who’s really at risk?

Latex allergies present a moderate to serious health problem for a small percentage of the population in the United States. Latex is the milky sap produced by rubber trees. Like many other natural things – bee sting venom, poison ivy, peanuts – latex can cause allergy problems ranging fro minor skin irritation to reactions so severe that immediate emergency medical treatment is required to prevent death. According to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Journal of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, 94 percent of us probably will never have allergic (anaphylactic) reaction to latex balloons.

Although first developed in the middle 1800s, latex didn’t become widely used until the early 1940’s. But, it took almost four decades before allergic reactions started appearing and causing problems.

• Due to the advent of AIDS in the early 1980s, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) mandated that all health care workers must wear protective surgical gloves while caring for all patients. Latex glove use jumped fro 2.5 billion in 1985 to more than 15.4 billion by 1995 consequently, health care workers (especially emergency care workers) began wearing latex gloves more often and for much longer periods of time – causing existing sensitivities to surface, or creating new antibodies.
• Another possible contributing factor to the hyper-sensitivity is that latex manufacturers may not have been allotting enough time on the production line for a complete and thorough washing which will remove many of latex’s allergy-triggering proteins. Although the FDA has no concrete evidence of this, the agency now requires all latex glove manufacturers to follow a stringent two-step washing procedure.

Today, health care experts estimate that one to six percent of the general population is sensitive to latex – comparable to the rate for bee venom, peanuts, grass and animal hair. While the balloon industry is cooperating with the health care industry on this issue, patients – especially children – aren’t losing out on the joy and entertainment balloons bring to a hospital room. Since the late 1970s, the balloon industry and its retailers have been providing synthetic, metallized balloons – commonly known as mylar – that offer a wide range of festive colors, unique shapes and messages that make people feel good.

Source: The Balloon Council