Home tools info

Use the right glove for proper protection and why are safety gloves important?

While at any jobsite, it’s almost inevitable to sidestep the many present hazards. At times, you may end up injuring your hands as you move an equipment. Or at other times you can get burns when working in the factory. Therefore, if you face any of these risks in your day to day activities, then you need to pay close attention to this article.

Hand injuries are quite common in any working area. And, if you are not careful enough you may end up spending large hospital bills yearly. This can be quite expensive to both employers and employees in the long run. That is why, understanding the importance of wearing the work gloves and protecting your hands with the right gloves in any hazardous work areas is vital.

As a worker, you always need to put on a ‘second skin’ to reduce impact and offer resistance to sharp edges or chemical substances. And, these gloves might actually be the only thing between you and the regular trips to that emergency room.

What are Safety Gloves?

These are wearable equipment also known as work gloves that protect your hands. They cover your hands all the way from your fingers to your wrist. These safety gloves are designed to protect the user from cuts, abrasion, chemical burns, biohazards or even crushing.

Choosing the right gloves matters a lot. Each set of gloves are designed for a specific hazard. For any work you do, ensuring that you have the appropriate equipment is always your primary focus. That helps to maintain efficiency as well as protect those involved in the construction.

Why are safety gloves important

What will the safety gloves protect me from?

Gloves are usually one of the most important tools. But most people tend to overlook that fact. However, as mentioned above, gloves protect you as a worker from a range of hazards. Some of these hazards include;

1. Biohazards and chemicals:

In every job site, whenever there are any chemicals being handled, there’s always a risk of getting burned by the spills. Also, when it comes to biohazards, all that it takes is a simple touch and a chain of reaction starts to spread on your skin like wildfire. Don’t let sci-fi movies fool you; these chain reactions won’t result in you turning into a superhero with incredible abilities.

On the contrary, Biohazards cause a burning sensation on your skin if just a drop spilled on your skin. If it was more than that, your skin is likely to melt away together with the underlying organs.

When you use safety gloves designed to counter the effects of chemicals and biohazards, you are safer and can handle the task at hand with ease. Such gloves are known as chemical resistant gloves. More on that below.

Some of the materials used in such gloves that give you that extra protection include:

  • PVC
  • Latex
  • Neoprene (Chemstop)
  • Nitrile
  • Cryogenic-resistant Cowhide

2. Abrasion, cuts or punctures hazards

In most industries today, as a worker, you are likely to suffer from cuts, punctures or abrasion mostly because of sharp corners. More importantly, when working in a construction site, you must have suffered from cuts that were unexpected.

That is why safety gloves come in handy. From cell tower riggers, oil field workers to metal handlers and construction workers. They all require a reliable source of protection from such hazards.

Abrasion cuts or punctures hazards

With cut-resistant safety gloves, you are sure that no matter what site you work on, the gloves will protect you from any cuts. More to that, you can also choose to check out our leather working gloves. That depends on the extremity of abrasions or cuts you are likely to suffer from in your job site.

3. Impact Injuries

Ever hurt your thumb when swinging a hammer? If yes, pay close attention to this section. Operating heavy-duty machines or just a simple hammer will put your hands at risk of suffering from impact injuries.

That doesn’t mean you are careless. Even with the highest level of keenness in your job, you may have suffered from impact injuries a couple of times. That means you need to find an effective way to deal with such injuries.

Instead of letting such injuries way down on you and affect your efficiency, use safety gloves to protect your hands. These gloves will reduce the impact of the blow and prevent the injury by absorbing some of the energy. That way, these safety gloves are able to dispense the impact away from your hand.

However, you will feel the impact but it won’t cause any serious damage to your hand. Amazing right? That not all. The safety gloves are quite comfortable. Such gloves are known as impact-resistant gloves and they are made from thermoplastic rubber.

The best part of these gloves is that, even though your hand is fully covered with the anti-impact gloves, you will not lose your dexterity.

4. Heat Hazards

When working in extreme heat for instance in welding, oil fields and natural gas plant or even in glass manufacturing, you have to deal with extreme heat. These job sites require extreme temperatures to come up with a final product for the consumers. That being said, you are likely to suffer from severe burns since you will come across the high temperatures or molten materials.

Safety gloves designed to protect your hands from such extreme temperatures might be the best solution. These gloves will create a barrier between your hands and the molten material hence you will be able to handle them with ease.

 Some of the safety gloves designed to counter the extreme temperatures are made from:

  • Kevlar 
  • SilaChlor
  • Temperbloc

5. Extreme Vibrations

The first thing that runs through your mind when I mention extreme vibrations in job sites is power drills and hammers. However, jackhammers and chainsaws together with other tools tend to cause more side effects on your body.

Even though you don’t realize it yet, that continuous vibration will affect your body by damaging your nerve endings, causing strain on your muscle joints or even leading to damages on your blood vessels. Therefore, you need to find a way to protect your body from such extreme complications.

Using safety gloves designed to absorb the vibrations will help reduce the impact. Try keeping the damage of such vibrations to a minimum.

6. Extreme weather conditions

If you are working at a plant that is in a cold weather environment or even in a refrigeration industry, then you probably need a way to deal with the cold. You need a barrier that will help you deal with the extreme weather conditions.

We all know that cold weather can cause serious damage to your skin and nerve endings. That is why using safety gloves will help you deal with it. The material in safety gloves designed to deal with extreme weather will provide insulation and warmth to your hands hence giving you a chance to work safely.

More importantly, the insulation also helps to maintain your body temperature. However, you will have to find heavy clothes designed to deal with the cold temperature for added protection. These safety gloves are made from-

  • Thermolite
  • Nitrile
  • PVC
  • Buffalo Hide
  • Thinsulate

Type Of Safety Gloves in the Market Today

As you can see, safety gloves are constructed depending on the type of protection needed. That is why you will need to find out which one best suits you. There are four different types of gloves;

  • Disposable gloves: these type of gloves are designed for the foodservice industry. They protect against minor injuries. They are only made for short term usage hence help to maintain the hygiene of the foodservice sector.
  • Chemical and hazard safety gloves: as mentioned above, these type of gloves protect you from chemical or biohazard substances. They are designed with a strong material capable of protecting you against corrosive materials.
  • Fabric gloves: these gloves are used for improving your grip or insulating against temperature changes. These gloves are also thermal proof hence can protect you against frostbite or burn injuries.
  • Cut and heavy-duty gloves: are designed from stainless steel and typically feature a mesh layer. They are made to protect you against punctures or tears from sharp objects or corners.

Final Verdict

Although most workers frequently complain that gloves are uncomfortable, it is evident from the above descriptions that safety gloves are important for any job site. You will need to know which type of gloves fit your job description. Also, you need to use the right type of glove in order to entirely keep your hands safe.