Re: Latex Gloves

["LEE COLLINS" <nlco@imag.wsahs.nsw.gov.au>]

G'day all,

Just as an aside on the latex allergy issue, some of you may have 
staff who work with transilluminators. These are fairly high 
intensity UV (usually UV-B) sources used as a fluorescence source in 
biology (at least). Staff must protect themselves against accidental 
burns when manipulating their chromatography gels or whatever by 
using a face mask and cover their arms and hands (believe me, burns 
do happen!).

If staff are allergic to latex, they will often use vinyl gloves as 
an alternative. We did some testing and found that over a sample of 
11 types of latex gloves, and 4 vinyl, the mean  UV-B transmittance 
was 0.5% for latex, but 30% for vinyl. For UV-A, the values were 10% 
and 70%.

This is not particularly new information, but also not widely 
appreciated. Hope it is of use.

Lee Collins

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Lee Collins MSc FACPSEM
Chairman, Division of Allied Health
Medical Physics Dept.
Westmead Hospital
Westmead   NSW  2145  Australia

Phone : +61 2 9845 6533
Fax   : +61 2 9891 5385
email : lee.collins@imag.wsahs.nsw.gov.au
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