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Conducting a complete assessment may prove difficult, as facilities
use so many products. To help with the process, organize a latex
treasure hunt. Empower your staff to try to find anything they think
could contain latex. Your staff handles products every day, so it's
worth tapping into their knowledge and experience. This hunt should
be ongoing as you'll likely find products with latex in them as you go
through your supply stock.
3. Remove latex products from your invento-
ry. As you identify products containing latex, take them out of your
stock and put them in a bag that labels them as latex products. You
don't want to comingle things by mistake. If you have good relation-
ships with your vendors, you may be able to exchange products with
latex for those without. It can't hurt to ask and see if vendors will
swap out your latex products.
4. Keep latex out. While removing latex products is an
important step to becoming a latex-safe facility, those efforts will be
for naught if you allow latex products back in. As you go forward, you
should begin to develop a relationship with your vendors so any time
you order something, they know you always want products to be
latex-free. If vendors can't provide a non-latex product to you, they
should tell you, and may even be able to recommend alternative com-
panies that can fulfill your needs. Some vendors still maintain a list of
their latex-free products, which should be yours for the asking. Your
vendors should be willing to partner with you on your latex-safe initia-
tive.
Despite an industry-wide shift toward non-latex products, never
believe non-latex is the default when ordering a new product. You
always need to ask about and verify a product's components.
L A T E X A L L E R G I E S
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