100,000 U.K. health workers at risk from latex allergies, union claims

LONDON (Aug. 13)—At least 100,000 National Health Service workers in the U.K.—about 10 percent of the total NHS staff—suffer from natural rubber latex allergies most likely developed at work, according to a report from the Trades Union Congress. The nurses, dental nurses and other health care workers who comprise the NHS staff started wearing latex gloves to prevent the transmission of AIDS and other blood-borne diseases. "But the cheaper gloves have very often proved, ironically, to have caused more illness than they were designed to prevent," the TUC report stated. The union proposed a ban throughout Europe on gloves that cause latex allergies, as well as widespread availability of alternative products for latex-sensitive workers.