From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**med.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Monona Rossol
Sent: Friday, September 2, 2016 10:12 AM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Latex and Nitrile Glove Allergies

1..  Investigate --  or you are just being a patsy.  Try a couple of questions such as "do you remember when and how your doctor determined that you were allergic to both latex and nitrile?"   If the answer is "hum-a-hum-a,"  proceed on the original assumption.    [In this particular case, I might ask, "When does your doc plan to write this up and publish in Lancet?"]

a)  If you get good answers to your medical questions, ask the student to obtain their doctor's advice on how best to deal with this problem.  Explain that we are chemists, not medical doctors specializing in allergy.  For example, if the student has a serious natural rubber allergy, merely providing different gloves is not enough. Rubber gloves worn by other students, the aprons, rubber tubing, stoppers, and other sources in the lab can be a threat.   But however you do it, put that ball back in the student's court and have the student and/or their doctor suggest the precautions.  

NOTE: Not only are we NOT qualified to provide precautions for a specific allergy patient, our expertise in this case is limited to the extremely incomplete ingredient information provided by the manufacturers of the alternative gloves we might offer as a solution. 

b)  If the student's answers to the medical questions are not good ones and you are getting nowhere in obtaining advice from their doctor, then cope with the very, VERY slim possibility that the student is actually telling the truth.  Propose the same kinds of fixes you would guess as a layman (not a medical expert) would be acceptable for someone with an "allergy."  This will provide you reasonable, albeit shaky, "due diligence" defense.