The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has unveiled a website to help raise
awareness about reactions to natural rubber latex, in a bid to combat this
serious cause of occupational asthma.
The site is designed to help healthcare professionals avoid getting
occupational asthma from natural rubber latex products.
Health professionals can click on their specific area for advice on the key
issues surrounding latex-based occupational asthma.
For occupational health, this includes information on reporting procedures
and the key duties required of OH professionals in this area.
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Sandra Caldwell, the HSE’s head of occupational health policy, said:
"This is a serious problem. We estimate 7,000 cases of asthma are caused
or made worse by work each year. Allergy to the proteins in natural rubber
latex is the fifth largest occupational cause of asthma. Raising this issue is
important because for many people, once sensitised, their lives are a misery and
they have to give up work."
