BALTIMORE (Jan. 22, 2008) — Johns Hopkins Hospital is eliminating natural rubber latex in all major applications and on the way toward banishing it entirely, the hospital said.
Johns Hopkins was the first hospital to introduce rubber surgical gloves, in 1894, and it also was one of the first medical research institutions to conduct research into the allergenicity of natural rubber latex, the hospital said.
It estimates that 6 percent of the general public, 15 percent of health care workers and as many as 80 percent of children with conditions such as spina bifida or bladder exstrophy suffer some form of latex sensitivity, according to Johns Hopkins.
The hospital now uses sterile neoprene and polyisoprene gloves in the operating room and nonsterile vinyl and neoprene gloves during examinations, claiming that the feel and fit are the same as natural rubber latex.