For exposure to hand-transmitted vibration (HTV), personal protective equipment is sold in the form of anti-vibration (AV) gloves, but it remains unclear how much these gloves actually reduce vibration exposure or prevent the development of hand-arm vibration syndrome in the workplace. This commentary describes some of the issues that surround the classification of AV gloves, the assessment of ...

The test approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for assessment of the barrier quality of medical exam gloves includes visual inspection and a water leak test. Neither method tests directly the ability of gloves to prevent penetration by microorganisms. Methods that use microorganisms (viruses and bacteria) to test gloves have been developed but require classical culturing of the orga...

BACKGROUND After Bacillus cereus recovery in opened boxes of disposable gloves, the bacteriological contamination of disposable nonsterile gloves kept stored in native packages was investigated prospectively. METHODS Thirty-six commercially available nonsterile nonpowdered disposable gloves made of latex, vinyl, or nitrile were cultured. RESULTS A large variety of spore-forming and non-spor...

Background Myths, misconceptions and a general lack of information surround the use of gloves and mittens in extreme cold environments. Objective This study assessed how well an assortment of gloves and mittens performed in a very cold environment. Methods A convenience sample of gloves and mittens were tested in Antarctica during the winter of 2016 using a calibrated thermometer (range: -148°F...

AIMS The aim of this study is to investigate whether protection with rubber or plastic gloves during post-mortem explantation of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) offers enough protection for the explanting operator during a worst-case scenario (i.e. ICD shock). METHODS AND RESULTS We investigated the insulating properties of rubber and plastic gloves (double layer) within the f...

The objective of this study was to explore the utility of nitrile gloves as a replacement for latex surgical gloves in recovering bacteria from the hands. Two types of nitrile gloves were compared to latex gloves using the parallel streak method. Streaks of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus were made on tryptic soy agar plates, and the zones of inhibition were measured around piec...

To compare the Immediate skm test reactivity ofvanous latex (natural rubber) surgical and cleanmg gloves, pnck tests were performed on 40 latex-allergic persons, 26 of whom were sensitized by surgical and 14 by cleanmg latex gloves. 6/17 surgical gloves tested and 1/2 cleanmg gloves caused positive reactions m almost all (over 87%) of the allergic subjects. In contrast, the frequencies of posit...

BACKGROUND Healthcare workers are at risk of acquiring viral diseases such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV through exposure to contaminated blood and body fluids at work. Most often infection occurs when a healthcare worker inadvertently punctures the skin of their hand with a sharp implement that has been used in the treatment of an infected patient, thus bringing the patient's blood into ...

Background: Physiotherapists have an occupationally elevated risk of dermatoses. One aim of skin care seminars for specific professional groupsin individual prevention programme in Germany is to ensure appropriate use of safety measures during patient treatment. Initially physiotherapists often think skeptically about the use of gloves and patients’ acceptance of this protective measure. So the...