05/10/2025
The 2025 Latex Allergy Awareness Week (LAAW 2025) starts today.
This year's theme is: “IT’S NOT NATURAL, IT’S UNEQUAL. LATEX ALLERGY AND THE GEOGRAPHY OF HARM.”
Natural latex is sold as "biodegradable" and "eco-friendly," but its real journey tells a different story: deforestation at the source, toxicity in transit, and allergy and exclusion at the destination. From surgical gloves to birthday balloons, from "recycled" tires to synthetic turf on sports fields, the same material crosses geographies and bodies with a hidden cost that's paid twice: once by the person who harvests it and again by the person who uses it. The balance sheet of the seller is never affected.
The Latex Allergy Association of Argentina –AAAL- and GAAPP are dedicating seven days to deconstruct this myth and map the geography of harm. What does the global journey of natural latex reveal about health and inequality?
Throughout this week, we will:
Show statistics on deforestation, litigation, prevalence, and hidden costs.
Listen to the voices of workers, patients, and families who live with this allergy every day.
Expose the supply chain that externalizes risks from the tropical jungle to the schoolyard.
Demand policies: progressive bans, local production of safe alternatives, and scientific transparency.
It’s not natural. It’s not harmless. It’s not inevitable.
It is unequal—and we can break the cycle.