Are Rubber Gloves Marketed as Accelerator-Free Truly Free of Accelerators?

Allergic contact dermatitis to rubber accelerators in gloves has been well described in the literature. In response to this, glove manufacturers have recently marketed "accelerator-free" gloves. Little research has been done, to confirm whether these gloves are truly free from the accelerators known to cause contact dermatitis.

The aim of the study was to verify use of accelerators in reportedly accelerator-free/low-dermatitis-potential gloves.

A total of 16 commercially available medical gloves touted as "accelerator-free," "sensitive," or "low dermatitis potential" were obtained and analyzed via mass spectrometry (liquid chromatography heated electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography heated electrospray high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry) to determine whether any of the 9 known rubber accelerators were present (thiurams, carbamates, mercaptobenzothiazole, and diphenylguanidine).

Despite marketing claims to the contrary, all tested gloves had at least 1 accelerant detected. Dipentamethylenethiuram disulfide, a thiuram, was found in all 16 gloves. Half of the gloves (8/16) contained more than 1 accelerator, with 1 glove having 5 rubber accelerators present.

Patients with allergic contact dermatitis to accelerators should be aware potentially sensitizing accelerators may be present in gloves that are reported to not contain them.