Page 32 - Occupational Health & Safety, April 2017

HAND PROTECTION
changes. Your glove becomes like a second skin instead of feeling like a sticky mess that inhibits your job performance.
Remarkably, even with the addition of this absorbent lining, the glove remains thin through a unique manufacturing pro- cess. Job performance is uncompromised, the glove provides added strength and du- rability, and the wearer is ensured a secure fit. Cotton liners are no longer needed be- cause what once required these two sepa- rate layers is now combined into one single use glove that manages the occlusive envi- ronment better.
Misconception #3:
There’s no difference in skin conditioners used in a glove.
Safeguarding your skin is the first step in overall hand protection. If your hands are so irritated that it’s uncomfortable to even put a glove on, you certainly won’t be happy keeping it on for several hours. It’s best to maintain the proper balance of pH and moisture on your skin to avoid more long-term hand health issues.
Single use gloves can be engineered with hand health agents, such as aloe vera, lanolin, glycerin or vitamin C, to mini- mize the effects of an occlusive environ- ment and form a barrier between the glove and the skin. Additives can be combined together to create a protective environ- ment or used in conjunction with other technologies to deliver a superior glove that provides hand health benefits as well as performance attributes.
Glycerin, a humectant, pulls moisture toward it. So in lower-humidity environ- ments, it actually draws moisture from the deeper skin surfaces below and trap it at the skin’s surface, essentially drying skin from the inside out. Although lanolin is a widely used additive, it’s an allergen to some, mak- ing it more of an irritant than a skin sooth- ing remedy.
Vitamin C helps moisturize the skin and prevent wrinkles, but because it oxi- dizes very easily, it loses its effectiveness quickly. In addition, no studies have been done to determine which grade is best for a hand health environment.
One of the most beneficial additives is aloe vera, drawing from a 3,500-year history of effective skin care. It has anti- inflammatory properties, has been proven to accelerate the skin’s healing process, and
also improves skin hydration.
pH balancing is one of the more recent
technological advances in single use glove additives. The natural pH for hands is around 5.5, but the occlusive environment inside a glove results in elevated pH values closer to the neutral 7.0-7.5 range.
Studies have shown that the skin on your hands is much more capable of uti- lizing the enzymes it needs to maintain hydration and barrier integrity at lower pH levels, which naturally occur when not wearing gloves. Keeping the pH level with- in a glove low is an important hand health criterion. And a lower pH level inside a managed glove interior can dramatically decrease the growth of harmful or danger- ous microbes. (Figure 2, below)
Keeping the pH within a glove closer to the hand’s normal 5.5 level can lessen the growth of bacteria.
These factors are a strong indication of why nature provides a lower, slightly acidic pH level on bare hands than what normally is experienced in the artificial environment of a sealed, air- and water-tight glove.
Misconception #4:
Cheaper gloves save you money They’re disposable, so the cheapest ones will work fine, right? Wrong! Take into ac- count these all too common scenarios:
■ Wasted inventory: How many times have you heard a co-worker sigh in frustra- tion as the gloves he is donning rip at the cuff or the finger even before he walks away from the box. Those gloves never had a chance and go right into the trash bin.
■ Wasted productivity: Now that the glove has failed, your co-worker gets an- other new pair from the box and tries to don them again . . . without tearing them this time. And if the glove ripped that easily when being put on, how long do you think it will last in an actual work environment where you’re handling grease and chemi- cals or working around equipment with sharp corners or edges? Even more frustra-
tion. (Figure 3, below)
Poorly constructed gloves can’t endure abra- sions or withstand prolonged exposure to grease, oil, or chemicals.
■ Wasted downtime: So your co- worker finally has a pair of gloves she was able to wear for an hour or two before the “wet work” became unbearable or the mate- rial’s integrity started to break down. Time for another change, another rapid exposure of the skin going from hot and humid to cold and arid, and increased potential for skin irritation that could lead to contact dermatitis. Now you are faced with workers who can’t perform their job responsibilities because they can’t wear the required PPE.
Still think cheaper is better?
All Gloves Are Not Created Equal
If you haven’t examined the current lineup of single use gloves, you might want to take a look. The glove of yesterday is a far cry from the glove of today.
Going beyond barrier protection, to- day’s single use gloves offer a higher level of hand protection by managing not only the external factors that hands are ex- posed to, but the internal environment, as well. Additionally, glove construction now takes into account long-term usability to reduce finger fatigue, chronic skin condi- tions, and more troublesome musculo- skeletal disorders.
Thomas Draskovics is the Chief Market- ing Officer for SW Safety Solutions (www. swsafety.com).
26 Occupational Health & Safety | APRIL 2017
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