Got my flu shot tonight and the paperwork asked about latex allergies. A bit of googling revealed it’s mainly latex in the syringe plunger and needle cap that cause problems for people with allergies.
Is simply touching (or being injected with) something that’s touched latex really likely to trigger an allergic reaction? Does latex dissolve or release allergens especially easily?
And, on a related note, it seems like allergies to synthetic substances are much rarer than allergies to naturally occurring substances (e.g. neoprene vs. latex). Why is this?
The basic allergen, thing that makes your body mount an immune response, is proteins. That’s what on the outside of every invasive cell, bacterium, or virus that your immune system can recognize, compare to the proteins on your cells, and mount an immune response because the proteins don’t match the proteins on your own cells – self vs non-self recognition being the job of your immune system.
Natural latex shouldn’t have proteins in it, but there are always some from the living plant. Better and better grades of latex can have less and less proteins in it, and we can reach the point where sensitive people don’t even mount an immune response. But such grades of latex are expensive.
This kinda gets screwy, when we mention people “allergic” to something non-protein, like a synthetic compound, or nickel metal, or iodine in seafood. But in those cases, that is the item in question altering existing proteins so they mount an immune response. Or incorrectly calling a different reaction an “allergy.”
There’s lots here: Some people are incredibly sensitive to a particular allergen. Some people get a tiny rash and go “ZOMG. Lawsuit LAWSIUT I have been abused and nearly kilt by monsterous mad scientist !!!111!!!”
But yes, there are a variety of, severity of, biological responses to, the wide range of, exposure types to, various levels of, latex proteins.
Or to remove the levels of qualifiers I’ve comma separated above – Yep. Latex allergy. Its a thing. Could be bad too.
Towards the end of his life my husband did, indeed, start to react rapidly to latex. Being touched by a cheap, latex glove could cause a rash. During a hospital visit, accidental use of a latex catheter resulted in hives, facial swelling, flushing, and shortness of breathe (kudos to the nurse who got on top of the problem with immediate medication, then raised holy hell with the pharmacy that screwed up, then thoroughly examined his room for anything else that might have been overlooked).
For most people with latex allergies no, simply being touched by a gloved hand is not likely to induce a medical emergency but it’s the sort of allergy that tends to get progressively worse with time. And some people are that allergic.
Cheap latex can be contaminated with latex proteins, and that’s where the problem comes in. It’s cheaper to buy and use vinyl or other non-latex gloves than to try to remove all the offending proteins from latex gloves. Ditto for things like latex-free bandages and the like.
Thanks for the info. I generally assume that, for any substance which can produce an allergic response, there will be some people who have reactions severe enough to require hospitalization. Also, people like to be warned if something can cause even minor irritation (so they can prepare or weigh that against the benefits, if they know they’re sensitive to that substance).
It just seemed odd to me that secondary contact (touching something that touched latex) could produce a reaction. Especially since latex is commonly used to insulate against contamination (e.g. medical gloves, food containers).