Dr Nesinee Chai-ia, from Khon Kaen University, warned on Tuesday that people using latex gloves, or condoms, may be susceptible to allergies - possibly fatal in rare instances.

The Thai Rubber Glove Manufacturers' Association says its plans to seek further details.

Association president Prachai Kongwaree said this week he had not seen details yet of the research, but conceded the news could damage the rubber glove industry. He said he would ask Nesinee for more information to see how extensive the allergy claim was.

"Faced with this news, we are in trouble through a tarnished image for our industry which earns Thailand about Bt26 billion a year. And [that figure] is growing because of the outbreak of bird flu and Aids, which means more and more people are using latex gloves and condoms," Prachai said.

Dr Nesinee, who has been studying the prevalence of latex allergies in Thailand, said in the past 20 years there had been various reports of allergies associated with chemicals or latex proteins in latex gloves, particularly surgical and industrial gloves.

Based on immunological responses, potential allergies were placed in two groups. First, there was a delayed type of hypersensitivity, whose symptoms included an allergic rash triggered by "accelerators" - a product called thiuram is the main one - in the latex gloves, Nesinee said. The second type of reaction was rare and had immediate hypersensitivity - the symptoms varied from skin irritation, cholinergic urticaria and conjunctivitis to sudden death from anaphylactic shock.

Data collected in the Northeast suggests about 2 to 3 per cent of Thais are in some way allergic to latex, compared with about 10 per cent of Europeans, Nesinee said. She urged people who use latex gloves at home to see a doctor if they suffer an allergic reaction.

"Many people don't know they have it until we ask them what they do at work, or what they have been handling recently, and this often included sandals or condoms made of para rubber," Nesinee said.

She mentioned a case of death during sexual intercourse in another country found to result from an allergic reaction to a natural rubber condom. She said manufacturers had recently been trying to produce rubber gloves with less protein in them to make them safer.

Prachai said there had never been problems with rubber gloves and no products had been returned by importers in the US and Europe.

"If there had been deaths caused by rubber gloves or condoms, they would have sued us for compensation and prohibited imports of the products," Prachai said. He agreed that a latex protein allergy existed but said it was very minor.

Such allergic reactions could be found in many types of products and people should not just presume that anyone using the gloves would have an allergic reaction.

Prachai said he would bring up the research at an association meeting in Hat Yai on Saturday.

Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia are principal exporters of natural rubber gloves and condoms, he said. Thailand alone exported about 20 billion rubber gloves a year for use in industries, households and the medical field, plus huge quantities of condoms.