Another blow to PVC products

It has been reported that Toys R Us announced cutbacks in PVC usage in US.
Toys RUs has begun replacing PVC and phthalate plasticizers in juvenile products made exclusively for the company.

All manufacturers and vendors have been notified that by the end of 2008 juvenile products sold in any Toys R Us or Babies R Us store in the United States must be produced without the addition of phthalate types of plasticizer that have raised concerns about infant safety and children's health.

Similar concern about PVC gloves used for food handling has been raised before.

You are at the site for answers and solutions to all your problems in natural rubber latex processing and manufacturing of industrial, household and medical gloves, condoms, catheters, baby teats and baby pacifiers, toy balloons, latex foam products, latex threads etc.

Functions of Higher Fatty Acid Soaps of Natural Rubber Latex

Manufacturer: What are other functions of fatty acid soaps we add to latex besides improving the mechanical stability of our latex compounds?

John Woon (Senior Latex Consultant): The fatty acid soaps or rather the Higher Fatty Acid (some times referred to as HFA) soaps do not come solely from those you add during compounding. In fact, it derives from the so-called non-rubbers of natural rubber latex of which about 50% is lipid material. The lipid materials contain phospholipids along with natural waxes, sterols and sterol esters. (HFA contains mainly palmitic, stearic, oleic and linoleic)

When we produce latex concentrates, ammonia is added as a preservative. With time, the phospholipid would be hydrolysed into fatty acid soaps, among other things, in the presence of ammonia. The whole process takes about 3 to 4 weeks. We therefore normally observe a gradual a rise in the mechanical stability of natural rubber latex (MST) from the day it is produced. Occasionally such rise is inadequate for good proccesibility hence the requirement of extra addition during compounding.

The crosslinking potential in a typical sulphur vulcanization system is also affected by the presence of HFAs since they form part of the activating system by solubilizing Zinc. It is therefore understandable that in the curative recipes for many dry rubber products, the addition of 1 to 2 parts stearic acid is very common.

Also, some quarters believe that fatty acid soaps lead to a reduction of the surface tension of the latex compounds resulting in better wetting, a prerequisite property required for good dipping process and more even spread of latex onto former surface.

Having said this, one should bear in mind the negative effects of such fatty acid soaps i.e. the increased foaming and webbing tendency.

You are at the site for answers and solutions to all your problems in natural rubber latex processing and manufacturing of industrial, household and medical gloves, condoms, catheters, baby teats and baby pacifiers, toy balloons, latex foam products, latex threads etc.

Indonesia to be world's top producer of natural rubber

According to Indonesia Rubber Association, growth in the Indonesian rubber production will be 5 to 6 % from 2008 while there would be only 2 to 3% in Thailand. This translates into 3.8 million tones and 3.75 million tones respectively for the two countries in the year 2015 making Indonesia the top rubber producer in that year.

Indonesia is on track to boost production due to higher productivity, better prices, and steady demand for natural rubber used in tyres, gloves and condoms. The slower growth in Thailand was reported to be due to negative effects of weather and unrest in Southern Thailand.

You are at the site for answers and solutions to all your problems in natural rubber latex processing and manufacturing of industrial, household and medical gloves, condoms, catheters, baby teats and baby pacifiers, toy balloons, latex foam products, latex threads etc.

DuPont first to submitt data to Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program

DuPont has submitted data on a nano-material to the Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program (NMSP) run by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), making it the first company to do so.

Dupont submitted data on its new titanium dioxide light stabiliser to the NMSP. This new product was launched on 28 January. It said its Light Stabiliser 210 plastics additive contained a sizeable percentage of nano-scale titanium dioxide particles. The material was submitted as part of the EPA basic programme.

DuPont said they were fully supportive of the Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program and believed this program would give the EPA the information that it needs to help ensure the responsible use of new nanomaterials.

You are at the site for answers and solutions to all your problems in natural rubber latex processing and manufacturing of industrial, household and medical gloves, condoms, catheters, baby teats and baby pacifiers, toy balloons, latex foam products, latex threads etc.

Wrong decision by hospital

In response to Johns Hopkins' recent decision to eliminate latex gloves from its hospital based on outdated data, Dr Esah Yip, director of the Malaysian Rubber Export Promotion Council (MREPC) in Washington,had written to Johns Hopkins about the new class of safer latex gloves that had led to a decline in latex sensitization and allergic incidences, informed the American media, and travels around the country to talk about Malaysia's superior latex gloves.

She said that new technology adopted by Malaysian manufacturers since the late 1990’s had drastically reduced the presence of residual proteins in latex gloves to less than 50 micrograms per decimeter.

The use of such gloves has been shown by a number of independent hospital studies in the United States, Canada and Europe to not only vastly reduce sensitization and incidence of allergic reactions, but more importantly, latex allergic individuals wearing non-latex gloves can now work alongside their colleagues using these improved latex gloves and suffer no ill effects.

A recent study funded by the US Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health found that latex gloves’ leakage rate (5.6 percent) was much lower than surgical gloves made of nitrides (9.3 percent) or polychloroprene/neoprene (7.4 percent).


"Allergy issues should be overcome not by banning latex gloves but by adopting the policy of using only low-protein, low-powder or powder-free latex gloves, while allergic individuals should use quality non-latex gloves as has already been done by other hospitals in the US, Germany and Finland," she said.

Yip said there was no evidence that anaphylactic shock had ever occurred with today’s low-protein, low or powder-free latex gloves when such a policy was adopted.

In addition, Mayo Clinic, a leading American medical institution, recently conducted a study that found the use of low protein latex gloves resulting in savings of US$200,000 per year

More than 3,300 physicians, scientists and researchers and 46,000 allied health staff work at Mayo Clinic, which has sites in Rochester, Minnesota, Jacksonville, Florida, and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Arizona.

Collectively, the three locations treat more than half a million people each year.

Yip said Johns Hopkins' decision to eliminate latex gloves from its hospital could unnecessarily increase its hospital glove costs by 50 percent.

While US imports of latex gloves grow steadily every year, challenges lie ahead for the MREPC as Harbor Hospital in Baltimore and Shriners Hospital for Children in Sacramento, California, opt to go latex-free.

In 2006, the US imported 18.4 billion pairs of rubber gloves worth US$1.2 billion, with 9.2 billion pairs worth about US$0.6 billion from Malaysia. This was a steady growth from 2004 when the US imported 17.6 billion pairs of gloves worth US$1.03 billion, with 8.6 billion pairs worth about US$0.5 billion from Malaysia, according to figures from Global Trade Atlas.

You are at the site for answers and solutions to all your problems in natural rubber latex processing and manufacturing of industrial, household and medical gloves, condoms, catheters, baby teats and baby pacifiers, toy balloons, latex foam products, latex threads etc.