The modern world has already been dominated by new materials with better properties that conform to the ever increasing demand of the people. The wide range of uses for plastic stems from their properties—rigid, flexible, colored, and can be shaped and formed in a number of ways. It’s just hard to imagine if a person is allergic to the one thing that can be found in almost every material on the face of the planet—plastics.

Mechanism of the allergic reaction

An allergy to plastics and plastic products occurs when the body reacts to a certain substance in it that it finds threatening, and launches a series of biochemical events that leads to the destruction of the offender. To be specific, plastics contain the substance phthalates to increase their durability and transparency. Recent studies have found an association between the high concentrations of phthalates and the increased incidence of allergies, eczema, and asthma in Swedish children. Nevertheless, any material composed of plastic would surely stimulate the appearance of itchy red rashes and some swelling. Major symptoms would include asthma exacerbations manifested by labored breathing, wheezing, and dizziness. Anaphylactic shock may occur in rare circumstances.

What your Doctor can do for you

Aside from your symptoms, your Doctor will aid you in determining the cause of an allergic reaction by having you undergo minor laboratory tests. A skin prick or scratch test will easily identify hypersensitivity to plastics. Blood tests like RAST are likely to be performed to determine the presence of plastic-specific antibodies.  Once diagnosed, the patient will be advised to avoid plastics for an entire lifetime. This brings a marked change in the lifestyle of a person because even the slightest exposure could trigger a major allergy attack in a very sensitive individual. Medications will be given depending on the severity of the symptoms.

What you can do

Basically, in every allergy treatment, all that a person needs to do is to avoid the culprit, which, in this case is plastic. And avoidance of plastic means no plastic bags, credit cards, Tupperware, plastic bottles, plastic chairs, plastic utensils, gloves, toothbrushes and other everyday items. You have to endure living without them, than a chance of suffering a fatal allergic reaction.