Latex glove use

C

ctaylorjr

Joined
Jul 22, 2010
Messages
108
Hola folks...

By day I'm an industrial health and safety specialist and at the day job we have noticed something of late that I thought I would pass along to the knife making world.

Since our company began 31 years ago (I've only been there for 5) the glove used in one of our operations has been the the latex type. Over the last 3 years we noticed that we have had a BIG increase in folks having issues with swelling, redness, and rashes on their hands.

This has been happening to people that have been wearing the gloves for MANY years that never had a problem before. It seems that they are now developing a latex allergy or sensitivity...

I have talked with several people that are in the glove manufacturing business, as well as, personnel at the CDC (old college buddy) and NIOSH. NONE would say "on the record" that it looks like latex is starting to give people trouble after repeated use, but all agreed that more complaints are coming in. One hinted about the fact that doctor's, nurses, and emergency responders now use the "blue" gloves instead of latex... It was also noted that a LOT of the latex gloves on the market these days are made in China...

We have now switched over to nitrile gloves at work, and all issues have gone away....

On another note, the nitrile gloves will provide more protection from some of the chemicals that we use as well. Etching solutions, epoxy, and acetone, for a few examples, will not permeate the nitrile as quickly as they will latex.

Just a little food for thought about the barrier gloves you may be using.

Charlie CIH CSP
 
nitrile gloves are the shit. Latex sucks.
 
My wife has been an Oncology Nurse for the past twenty five years (read as WAAYYYY too much latex glove use). About 6 - 8 years in she developed the sensitivity/allergies that you are referring to. Her unit and eventually the entire hospital (Children's in D.C.) switched over to the nitrile gloves. From what she has seen the majority of the major hospital systems have made the switch. One of the things noted was a significant drop in the qualtiy of the imported latex gloves which tended to increase the sensitivity issues. Making the switch in the shop would probably be a good idea.
 
I prefer nitrite gloves anyways.. latex always leaves your hands smelling funky and have that weird white powdery crap in them...
 
Nitrile are better, but more expensive by several times


Vinyl aren't bad either, less flexible, but tough and fairly im-permeable to solvents

, less likely to tear than bad latex,
and cheaper.
Because of the lower flexibility, it's more important to get the right size.

I've found my hardware stores & pharmacies stock medium and large, but not the XL that i need.




"that weird white powdery crap in them.."
That's cornstarch
they all have that unless you specifically order powder free
 
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Acetone WILL eat Nitrile very quickly....I'm forced to use latex when working with it.
 
^^^ That's what I was going to say.....acetone on nitrile is like throwing water on cotton candy.....it just dissolves....and I use a lot of acetone in my shop. Although I have both types of gloves in the shop, I far prefer latex.
 
I've been using these types of gloves for about 9 years. Beats the heck out of surgery type gloves and the thick "work gloves". Menards and HD both have them around $1 per pair now, and I've always got a stock of about 20 pair. They are quite a bit thicker than the surgeon's gloves, but still thin enough to get a feel for working. As well, they will protect your fingers from heat while still allowing you to know when the metal is getting warm.

Not this particular brand, but very similar.
http://www.envirosafetyproducts.com/palm-coated.html
images.php
 
I work in the pharmaceutical industry, and we've noticed similar problems with latex gloves. I've also noticed that the inside of the gloves are often contaminated by bits of metal or some greasy substance. I actually had to go to the doctor's office after a piece stabbed me and got infected. The quality must be going down, because I don't remember having problems with these gloves years ago. I've started using thicker chemical type gloves for knife making.
 
Unless I had a bad box, nitrile gloves tear too easily for my liking.

I use powder free latex for my Cerakoting. No issues... yet.

Thanks for the knowledge.
 
Since I am a surgeon, I have used/tried virtually EVERY "rubber glove" on the market, and I have a few useful bits of information. Almost all hospitals have gone to "latex-free" gloves, but interestingly, it is usually NOT the latex that causes the problems, it is the POWDER use din the gloves to make then easier to get on and off. Somehow, this seems to act as a sensitizer, because many people "allergic" to latex have no problem with powder free gloves.

Latex really does give you the most tactile feedback, but the newest latex free gloves are now very close in feel. Nitrile is good for certain things

Bill
 
I’m supposed to avoid latex as much as possible in the university metals and ceramics labs I manage, so for disposable gloves I keep nitrile, a few vinyl that no one likes and I’m going to test butyl gloves in the fall. Like most things you get what you pay for even with disposable gloves, some of the no-names seem to be thinner and more fragile than name brand, I tried some from Harbor Freight that were pretty fragile. I’m sure they come in different thicknesses, I picked up some at the hardware store that were black nitrile “mechanics” gloves that seem a bit thicker than some gloves. I’ve had good luck with both nitrile and latex gloves from Costco and I can get 2- 200 glove boxes for less that I can get one box at Grainger.
Not all gloves work for all hazards, nitrile hardly slows down acetone. Glove manufactures and safety supply companys have charts of what type of glove resists what chemical and for how long, I used this one http://www.ncsu.edu/ehs/www99/right/handsMan/worker/ppe/hand.html in the safety document for our labs.
Todd
 
I work in the semiconductor industry and where gloves are worn for a 12 hour shift. These days thin cotton liners are provided and when wearing these i can not tell the difference in the type of glove I wear, be it nitrile, vinyl or latex. I prefer latex, but I know it gives some people problems. I saw people have reactions to the latex gloves over 20 years ago when latex was all we had, of course no one knew what it was at that time.
 
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