Are You Having Latex Allergy?
Latex allergy is a term used to describe the condition of allergic reactions to a wide range of natural rubber latex products. The general symptoms include sneezing, coughing, skin rash, hives, watery eyes and having difficulty in breathing.
The types of workers who are prone to having latex allergy are the rubber workers who exposed themselves to high amounts of latex for long periods. The statistics has shown that about 10% of the rubber workers are having certain degree of allergic reaction to latex.
Health care workers are another group of workers who are exposed themselves to great risk of latex allergy due to the ubiquitous use of latex products such as latex gloves in health care industries. The statistics shown that about 4-15% of the workers are having latex allergy.
If you work as a professional whose job requires wearing of latex gloves, you may have the experience of discovering rashes on your hands after taking off the gloves. It may looks like dry skin at first sight, but it is usually the latex allergy that causes the rashes.
If you have to wear latex gloves throughout the day of your job, you probably know how having latex allergy can be inconvenience and uncomfortable. What makes the situation worst is that after you take off the gloves that contain latex and if you touch on any part of your body without washing your hand properly, the allergic will break out and spread to the larger part of your skin and leaving you with the feeling of uncomfortable and bad mood.
Depends on the level of your allergic to latex, the latex allergy symptoms and skin rash will normally diminish or disappear after a few hours or days after without direct contact with the latex gloves or products. Benadryl and other antihistamine blockers can be used to alleviate the allergic condition until the latex allergy reaction is over.
It is not necessary for you to work in the rubber or medical industries in order to have latex allergy. There are many kinds of products like the home appliances that contain are made with latex and you may soon to find out that you are allergic to latex product as well.
Examples of the products that you should avoid are carpet, waistbands, all purpose dishwashing gloves, disposable diapers and sanitary pads, erasers and rubber bands that you use at work or everyday. Other items such as condoms, swimming goggles, handle bar handgrips from bikes and motorcycles, racket handles, and diaphragms.
These are only a few of the example of the products that contain latex. Do your own research to come up with a more detail list of latex products and try to avoid them as much as possible to avoid any potential risk of latex allergy reaction.
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