Since latex household gloves have been available from service providers (as well as in supermarkets or drugstores), they have been used by cleaners during cleaning work to protect hands, among other things. This applies to professional cleaning staff of the service providers as well as to household work.
Non-allergenic gloves
The gloves usually belong to category 1 and the most striking thing is their high wearing comfort and low price. The great rage about the allergy problem has now subsided considerably (especially in the field of medical gloves), also due to the use of protective gloves made of materials other than natural latex. However, the problem still exists to some extent, and due to ignorance, it has partly shifted to other areas, such as the cleaning industry. In the meantime, the industry has brought reusable gloves onto the market, which do not have the problem of latex allergy for the glove wearer. They do not contain natural latex. Both the employers' liability insurance associations and the Federal Association of Hand Protection have referred to these alternatives (e.g. nitrile gloves or vinyl gloves). Nevertheless, glove users like to come back to gloves made of natural latex because of their unique elasticity properties and dexterity.
Natural latex allergies are irreversible
Natural latex allergies are irreversible and incurable, so countermeasures must be aimed at preventing their development from the very beginning. Sensitization by the allergens contained in latex gloves takes place unnoticed and insidiously at first, but immediately after the first contact with the allergen. In this case, a predisposition of the wearer (which is not known in advance) can be decisive for the triggering of a latex allergy. The absence of staff due to illness can become an expensive matter for the service provider in the long term.
The following alternatives are interesting for the user from the point of view of occupational safety:
Nitrile gloves velourized. They are used when both good chemical resistance and good mechanical properties are required. The dexterity and elasticity are inferior to gloves based on natural latex. As soon as the work is primarily aimed at the industrial cleaning sector, this is a solution that has been tried and tested for many years. Examples include the Solvex grades from Ansell, Nitrix from Allprotec, and many others.
Fabric-supported nitrile gloves are even more robust due to the backing material and are ideally suited for rough cleaning work. A good example of this type of glove is the Nitri-Knit NK 803 from Honeywell. However, such fabric-supported gloves are more expensive.
Pure neoprene gloves (e.g. Allprotec Neoprotec) are highly resistant to many chemicals, but they have limitations in terms of their mechanical properties (and higher price).
Vinyl gloves as an alternative
Since years of well-established vinyl gloves such as Semperstar and Sempersoft are no longer available, the Bingold Vinyl glove (as well as Semperstar and Sempersoft) as a non-allergic, soft glove can partially fill this gap. At the same time, the Protexi Cleaner Plus glove is available under the Allprotec brand. This has been developed especially for the cleaning industry on the basis of a special nitrile mixture (i.e. it is not a vinyl glove). This development has led to the fact that the performance characteristics are very similar to those of vinyl gloves (very pleasantly soft, excellent dexterity and wearing comfort). Furthermore, it does not contain any plasticizers (phthalates), which means that the discussion about the plasticizer content, which was often criticized in the past, does not even arise.
All manufacturers continue to develop their products, whereby the basic requirements (it must be a Cat. 3 glove) are always guaranteed. The manufacturers have also taken into account that the user of the suitable gloves does not get out of the frying pan and into the fire, for example by eliminating the risk of a type 1 latex allergy by the risk of a type 4 allergy!
It is always important to have expert advice on which glove should be used for the respective cleaning work (keyword: chemical resistance). The protection professionals will continue to publish further information on personal protective equipment and the prevention of allergies in the future.