Gloves for Chemical Safety

When it comes to handling chemicals, the last barrier preventing exposure to the skin is clothing; for hands it's gloves. Choosing the right glove to sufficiently protect your hands from chemical hazards is an important and oftentimes complicated task.

The Last Line of Defense

• While gloves are essential to protect the hands from exposure to hazardous chemicals, the first line of defense against dangerous exposures should always be proper engineering and an overall focus on the implementation of industrial hygiene practices, according to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS).

Making Careful Choices

• CCOHS also warns that while Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) are available for chemicals used in the workplace, the information available on the MSDS is oftentimes not specific enough to empower the correct choice of glove for a particular chemical. It is important to make sure that the glove you choose is the correct glove for the job.

Why Do Glove Types Matter?

• Not all materials function equally with all chemicals. For example, nitrile gloves, commonly used for handling oils, greases and toluene, performs poorly for exposures to benzene, a chemical very similar in structure to toluene, according to Argonne National Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Laboratory advises the use of fluoroelastomer gloves to protect against benzene, but also notes that these gloves perform poorly against other organic substances.

Permeation Rate and Penetration

• One of the factors that affects the performance of gloves in preventing exposures is permeation rate, which, according to CCOHS, is the rate at which a particular chemical can move through the glove.

  Another important factor in the performance of gloves for chemical safety is penetration, which happens when a chemical leaks into the glove through an imperfection in the material or through one of its seams, according to CCOHS.

Breakthrough Time

• The time that it takes a chemical to completely permeate or migrate through the glove is the breakthrough time. CCOHS advises that this often overlooked factor in glove performance is vital because it indicates how long a glove can be safely used for a particular chemical.

Degradation

• Over the course of exposure to a chemical the material that makes up the glove may undergo a number of physical changes that will affect the performance of the glove and the safety of the person wearing it. According to CCOHS the glove may harden, stiffen, swell, become brittle or soft, or even dissolve. This is called degradation.