Disposable Gloves

What are disposable gloves used for?

Disposable gloves are used by professionals in a wide range of industries to create a barrier between the wearer’s hands and potentially dangerous substances. For example, disposable gloves are used in the following industries:

• Medicine – to prevent cross-contamination and infection, as well as protecting the wearer from the likes of blood and bodily fluids.
• Catering – to prevent food from being contaminated with bacteria from the wearer’s hands.
• Chemical industries – to prevent harmful chemicals from touching the skin in laboratories and similar environments.
• Police & Emergency Services - to prevent officers from contaminating evidence, and to protect them from substances such as blood or chemicals.
• Janitorial, Refuse & Waste – to prevent the wearer from coming into physical contact with any hazardous substances which have been disposed of.

What are disposable gloves made from?

• Latex – Latex gloves are famously durable and flexible, so they’ve long been the material of choice when it comes to disposable gloves. However, organisations buying latex gloves must ensure that no one who intends to use them suffers from a latex allergy.
• Nitrile – Nitrile is highly regarded as one of the best materials for making disposable gloves. Nitrile gloves offer all the benefits of latex but without the allergies, as the material was specially created to eliminate the allergic effect of latex.
• Vinyl – Vinyl is much cheaper to produce than both latex and nitrile, so vinyl gloves are most commonly used as a solution for saving costs on a single use consumable. Typically vinyl gloves are looser fitting and are therefore not ideal for dextrous tasks.

There are also both powdered and powder-free gloves available to buy. The powder in powdered gloves is intended to soak up perspiration and make gloves more comfortable during long-use; however, some wearers can find it irritates their skin.