Latexhandschuhe im Hautkontakt – gibt es Risiken?

Abstract

Allergies to rubber parts, especially to natural rubber latex gloves, are a widespread phenomenon and are frequently described in the literature. The presented investigation is based on 6 NR latex gloves and reveals a whole string of extractable rubber chemicals which can irritate the human skin when these gloves are used. On the one hand conventional qualitative and quantitative methods for the analysis ofrubber chemicals present in the gloves via methanol extraction followed by HPLC were applied. On the other hand special emphasis was layed on the question, how much of these chemicals can be absorbed by human skin in ordinary use of gloves. This includes also possible chemical reactions in the presence of sweat and the influence of a hand disinfectant which is commonly used e.g. in hospitals. Various approaches were investigated for the laboratory simulation of a hand wearing a glove. As a result, it could be shown that the desinfectant increases the concentration of irritating chemicals and components were able to permeate through the elastomer. The extraction of zincdimethyldithio-carbamate (ZDMC) and mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT) was monitored as a function of time, temperature and pH value similar to a BGA method. In addition, a rough estimation of the quantities of these chemicals, which can permeate to the skin while wearing the gloves, was done. For ZDMC an exposition of 0,7 mg, for MBT of 2 mg per hand and day was found. The combination of sweat and extractable chemicals can obviously produce chemicals as for example tetramethylthiuramedisulfide (TMTD). This hazardous substance could be detected in small amounts although the methanol extract was apparently free of TMTD. A profound toxicological evaluation of the indicated compounds is not part of this paper. The investigation also shows that it is possible to produce rubber gloves which are approximately free of polar and thus water soluble pollutants.