Natural Rubber Latex Protein Allergy: A literature review and a survey of the major allergens in household products taken from the German retail market
For more than 20 years, latex bottle teats and soothers have been implicated in sensitisation and allergic reactions.
Peter Weiss (MSc, PhD, C.Chem, FRSC) investigated latex allergies. Like most authorities, he is convinced, that reduction as far as practicable of the proteins and allergens in the latex product, rather than the removal of latex itself can solve the problem of latex allergy.
In a first step, the medical literature on natural rubber latex and latex protein allergy was reviewed. After that a number of natural rubber latex products were analysed: Quantification of the major natural rubber latex specific allergens were carried out for latex household gloves, toy balloons, latex soothers and latex bottle teats.
“These results clearly show that significant amounts of allergens are to be found in latex gloves and balloons. However, the level of allergens in latex soothers and bottle teats is negligible, totally verifying the previous conclusion that current manufacturing methods successfully remove these contaminants.”
On the basis of the data and the literature review it is highly unlikely for natural rubber latex soothers and bottle teats to promote sensitisation. In addition, a sensitised child is unlikely to suffer allergic reactions from any of the samples tested.