I can't give specifics, but I am in the plastics industry. Latex is not used in many applications, because of it's lack of resistance to UV, ozone, etc. It does not have a high heat resistance, and is not flame retardant. These are all important features when choosing materials for a computer.

The cables will likely be PVC (poly vinyl chloride). The membrane will be polycarbonate (like a 5 gal. water bottle from Hinckley & Schmitt). or it could possibly be a thermoplastic elastomer, that is not latex.

The soft grip on a mouse, is likely also a thermoplastic rubber, like Kraton (styrene-butadine) or Santoprene (olefin based, like polypropylene).

The mousepads have either a foam base, or are a textured thermoplastic rubber that is extruded into sheets.

It may be possible (but not likely) to have a latex foam base on a mousepad, so you want to be careful there.

Please feel free to contact Dell directly. I don't think the regular tech support will know, but they can forward you to someone. Make sure that you specify the reason, and always ask for the correct spelling of their names. This can sometimes help make sure that someone is double-checking their information.

Have a good one.

Tony Marquez

XPS T500 w/256MB & A10 Bios
Win98SE w/IE 5.01 SP1
Viruscan 5.12, & ZoneAlarm 2.1.44
Dell P991 19" Trinitron monitor
V770D Ultra(165/220-Card Cooler) 6.34
STB TV-Tuner card
SB Live 1024 w/Altec Lansing ADA-880
Logitech Wingman F/F USB joystick & Wheelman
Hitachi GD-5000 DVD w/Cinemaster 3.0
HP 9300i RW w/Adaptec 3.5c/DirectCD 3.0
Epson Laser 1500 w/Entrega USB converter
Canon BJC-6000 color inkjet
Aztech MDP-3880-U Winmodem (Arrgh!!)

In addition to what Tony said: If you are unsure of the make-up of a mouse pad, get one of the optical mouse's (mice?) from Microsoft such as the Intellimouse Explorer. No mouse ball, hence no mouse pad required.