Is latex allergy epidemic caused by injecting infants with latex and toxic chemicals?

Tuesday, December 15, 2015 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer
Tags: latex allergies, vaccines, chemical injections

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(NaturalNews) Because latex ingredients are regularly used in hypodermic syringes and in the stoppers of injectable drugs, childhood vaccination could produce enough early latex exposure to produce a later latex allergy, suggests the web site VacTruth.

An estimated 1 to 6 percent of the general population suffers from latex allergies. This prevalence climbs to as high as 16 percent of those regularly exposed to latex (such as health care workers). Allergic reactions to latex range from a localized skin reaction, to sinus congestion or hives, to anaphylaxis - a life-threatening constriction of airways and drop in blood pressure.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that latex allergies have become more common in recent decades, probably due to increased exposure.

No precautions can prevent contamination

That the rubber used to make drug stoppers can have health consequences was confirmed by a study conducted by researchers from Johns Hopkins University and published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in 2001. The researchers performed puncture and intradermal skin testing on 23 volunteers, 12 of them with latex allergies. The participants were tested with needles that had punctured five separate vials: Two with stoppers made from natural rubber (latex), and three from stoppers made of synthetic (non-latex) rubber. In some of the tests, the stoppers were not punctured. In others, they were punctured multiple times (as would occur when multiple syringes are used to draw drugs from a multi-dose vial).

None of the participants without allergies showed reactions to any of the tests. Among the allergic participants, however, five showed reactions to the needles that had punctured stoppers, and two showed reactions even when the stoppers had not been punctured but had only been used to store the fluid used in the test.

"If a drug is sold and stored in vials with a natural rubber stopper, no matter what precautions you take, latex allergens can contaminate that drug," researcher Robert Hamilton said.

The study suggests that people with intense latex allergies could suffer potentially fatal reactions from drugs stored with latex stoppers.

Thirty doses by age six

While the Johns Hopkins study focused on people who already had latex allergies, VacTruth notes that early exposure to an allergen can often play a major role in developing an allergy in the first place. Thus, latex used to store vaccines or to make the syringes used to administer them could actually sensitize children to develop an allergy later in life.

As of the VacTruth article's publication in June 2012, the following vaccines should be considered to contain latex allergens (using Hamilton's definition above): anthrax (Bio Thrax), Comvax, DTaP ( Infanrix, and Tripedia), DT (generic), DTaP + polio (Kinrix), DTap + polio + Hep B (Pediarix), Hib (Hiberix, PedvaxHIB and ActHIB), Hepatitis A (Havrix and Vaqta), Hepatitis B, (Engerix-B and Recombivax HB), Hepatitis A + B (Twinrix), HPV (Cervarix), influenza (Fluarix, Fluvirin, Fluzone and Agriflu), meningococcal ( Menomune), polio (IPOL), rotavirus (Rotarix), Td (Decavac, Tenivac and generic), Tdap (Adacel and Boostrix), TriHIBit and Yellow fever (YF-Vax).

This means that starting with the Hep B vaccine a few hours after birth, a child following the recommended vaccine schedule could receive 20 to 30 doses of injected latex allergen by the age of six.

A current list of vaccines stored with latex products can be obtained from the CDC, or from vaccine product inserts issued by the FDA.

Because vaccines are so widely used in childhood, they have also been suggested as a culprit for other increasingly common allergies. For example, the web site The Doctor Within suggests that the widespread use of peanut oil and peanut oil derivatives in the early generation of vaccines (as well as other drugs, such as antibiotics) in the 1960s could have contributed to the rise of peanut allergies.

Sources:

http://vactruth.com/2012/08/02/vaccines-latex-allergens/

http://latexallergyresources.org

https://www.naturalnews.com/039192_peanut_oil_vaccines_allergies.html