food and drug administration proposes ban on powdered medical gloves healthfda proposes a ban on powdered medical gloves 21 2016washington the food and drug administration proposed banning powdered medical gloves on monday saying the powder can inflame wounds and cause scars to form between organs and tissue after surgerythe powder is added to the gloves by manufacturers to make it easier to put them on and take them off but experts have known for some time that the powder can cause harm the agency did not specify the precise percentage of gloves that now have powder but a spokesman for the agency eric pahon said it was very small the proposal is open for public comment for 90 daysthe agency started to warn about the gloves in 1997 but refrained from banning them then largely because it determined that pulling them from the market at the time could have caused shortages and been disruptive to the practice of medicine the ban would apply to powdered surgeons gloves powdered patientexamination gloves and absorbable powder for lubricating a surgeons glovepowdered latex gloves were common in medical practice for years but evidence that they might be dangerous began to be collected in the 1990s according to public citizen a consumer watchdog group a number of major hospitals began switching to nonpowdered alternatives in the late 1990sdr sidney m wolfe a founder of the group said it had petitioned the food and drug administration to ban powdered latex surgical gloves in 1998 he said powderfree latex gloves were about a quarter of all surgical gloves on the market at that timetheres absolutely no reason that they could not have initiated the ban back in 1998 dr wolfe said but mr pahon said that banning them at the time would have created a shortage for a necessary medical device he added that now the agency was eliminating the risk from the market as better alternatives have come outpowdered synthetic gloves are associated with wound inflammation and a condition that can happen after surgery in which bands of fibrous scar tissue form between organs and tissue