From natural rubber to medical glove

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February 5, 2019

An Ohio State University researcher and her team have created the first medical glove that can block radiation while meeting federal guidelines and not triggering allergic reactions.

This glove also will eliminate the need for medical professionals working with radiation to double-glove to follow the federal requirement that they protect against both bloodborne pathogens and radiation.

The Radiation Attenuation (RA) medical glove that Katrina Cornish of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) and her team developed uses rubber from guayule, a shrub native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. While there are already several types of RA gloves on the market, this glove uses guayule natural rubber, which does not cause allergic reactions, according to extensive testing by Cornish, an Ohio Research Scholar and holder of the Endowed Chair in Bio-based Emergent Materials, and her team. Cornish is a member of the Faculty Advisory Board of the Sustainability Institute at Ohio State.

Read more about how the CFAES research team’s creation fends off allergies and blocks radiation