The most important reason to wear protective gloves is to protect your hands from hazards (especially mechanical, chemical and biological hazards). In addition, the protection of a sensitive product from contamination plays an important role.
Protecting hands from hazards makes a lot of sense
Hand injuries are the most common workplace injuries. The employers' liability insurance associations expect about 40% of the total number of accidents at work, while a glove manufacturer itself calculates 60%. The human hand is a biological marvel, 27 of the 206 bones of the human skeleton alone are hand bones. Injuries to the hand quickly lead to major personal limitations, consequential health damage and high costs. One should also not underestimate the hand injuries that occur in the non-commercial sector. In addition to the approximately 466,000 occupational hand injuries, there are also 130,000 hand injuries during gardening at home. Protecting your hands from danger is therefore extremely useful.
Avoid accidents by wearing protective gloves
Many accidents can be avoided by wearing suitable gloves. If the hand is threatened by mechanical impact, it is advisable to wear protective gloves. These gloves must be certified according to EN 388 in the European Union. The only exceptions to refraining from wearing protective gloves are work on rotating machines, which can cause the most serious injuries due to the risk of pulling in and must therefore be operated without gloves. In the same way, working with gloved hands is highly dangerous when handling band saws, angle grinders and certain drills. Wearing protective gloves is counterproductive here. On the other hand, the risk to hands from heat and cold in the workplace is an imperative situation for wearing suitable, standardised protective gloves. The same applies to chemical hazards. Refraining from wearing gloves when working in a company with risks from chemicals is irresponsible recklessness. The gloves used must be suitable against the specific hazard and certified according to EN 374. Determining which protective glove to use is the responsibility of the safety engineer or employer.
Wear protective gloves for your own safety
Biological hazards are also an unavoidable area for the use of protective gloves. The wide range of dangers in medical areas can also be mentioned here. In extreme cases, one thinks of dangers from germs, bacteria and viruses. Keywords here can be Ebola, HIV and MREs (multi-resistant pathogens). This is where we come to the domain of disposable gloves. An infection caused by such pathogens can easily be fatal. In some situations, gloves are therefore "doubled" so that even if the outer glove is destroyed, there is still protection.
Product protection by wearing protective gloves
Product protection is particularly necessary in sensitive areas. These include, for example, areas such as microelectronics, cleanrooms and the pharmaceutical industry. The smallest impurities are often enough to make a product unusable. This is then prevented by wearing disposable gloves (often sterile). Gloves are regularly used in the food industry to avoid contamination of food. Such gloves must be certified for use in food handling. No one accepts that fruits, vegetables and salads are contaminated by germs that are transmitted through the hands.
The protection professionals encourage the acceptance of protective gloves
It is clear that there are many situations in the world of work in which gloves must be worn. Although this is the case, there are acceptance problems from time to time. Working without gloves is often seemingly more comfortable. In many cases, the reasons for low acceptance lie in the wrong instructions for wearing protective gloves. Hands must be washed and dried well before putting on gloves. The size must be the right one for the wearer's hand. Equally important is the correct tightening of the glove (from the edge) so that it does not tear. You should also pay attention to the correct removal of the protective glove. Secondary contamination of the hand due to incorrect undressing must be avoided at all costs. If you stick to these simple rules, there will be far fewer acceptance problems in practice.