Are latex gloves used outside the healthcare environment?
The natural rubber latex glove has been used in food services. But there has been an effort to try to eliminate the use of natural rubber latex gloves in places where they’re really not necessary, such as in housekeeping and food handling, where they’re basically being used just to protect the hands of the individuals. If an individual puts on a natural rubber latex glove that contains high levels of allergenic protein, and then they handle food, in theory, the allergenic protein can be transferred onto the food. Now whether the food with the allergenic protein on its surface represents a risk to an individual or not is the issue that’s in dispute. Latex gloves can be used in other settings as well. For example, we had a farmer from a rural area of Baltimore who bought natural rubber latex gloves from the pharmacy down the street and used to wear them in the field to keep his hands clean. There was really no need for him to use latex gloves but those were what he had available. He mana
