Reporting arrangements for latex allergy
Firstly you must talk to your line manager. They should be aware of any reporting mechanisms within your organisation, perhaps via Occupational Health or the Health and Safety Officer, where you can be refered for investigation and diagnostics.
Are there any formal reporting arrangements?
There are a number of Agencies to which your management should report adverse reactions to Natural Rubber Latex products:
- Health and Safety Executive
- RIDDOR: Under RIDDOR requirements, incidents of occupational dermatitis and asthma attributable to latex should be reported to the appropriate Enforcing Authority (ie Health and Safety Executive or local authority) and a record of such incidents kept.
- The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulation Agency (MHRA) has a voluntary reporting system for reporting cases of latex sensitisation to both patients and staff.
- The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) is a Special Health Authority charged with improving patient safety in the NHS. It was created in 2001, following the publication of two reports addressing patient safety incidents in the NHS (An Organisation with a Memory and its follow-up, Building a Safer NHS for Patients).
- Food Standards Agency research into latex protein transfer in food preparation