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For many professionals wearing
protective gloves is a part of daily life. Protective gloves are a major element in virtually any professional
settings ranging from bio-medical to industrial environments. In
some instances, however, sweat that forms on the
surface of human hands, and lengthened exposure to fabrics of
protective gloves, chemically utilized in
manufacturing of protective gloves and liquids inside of protective
gloves can lead to many problems. This array of problems can be divided in two major areas -
self-contamination and extrinsic contamination. The problems with protecting hands
of employees along with protecting objects of their
labor have no clear consistency and correlation in government
directives on this matter. Information available
on OSHA, FDA, and CDC sites is very limited and mostly
contradictive. The worst of all is that government directives do not solve problems and even more so in many
instances problems are augmented. This blind spot
significantly affects the bottom line through decline productivity,
customers' negative responses, medical bills, and workers'
comp.
Contamination
Self-contamination is a process
in which sweat produced by human hands inside of protective gloves,
induced by lack of air exchange and higher temperature inside of the
gloves, creates a “bacterial soup” that stimulates extensive
bacteria reproduction. Wearing internally contaminated gloves leads
to higher systemic absorption than was gained from the equivalent
skin contamination when not wearing protective gloves. In many
cases, such hand protection problems lead to development of
Occupational Skin Diseases (OSD) which are shared by many in wide
spectrum of industries.
Problems caused by hands washing
Hand washing with warm water is thought
to exacerbate the damage done to the skin's barrier function. Very
high frequency of hand washing shows increased skin irritation and
increased bacterial counts, possibly due to the de-fatting of skin,
which has been shown to increase the survival of "Staphylococcus
arueus" on hands. As hand washing frequency, duration, and
aggressiveness increases, damage to the stratum corneum layer can
cause dry skin, chapping, pain, cracking and fissures. Dry skin then
causes increased shedding of both skin cells and skin microflora.
Problems caused by protective gloves
Recent studies indicate that
hypersensitivity and anaphylactic reaction to latex, plastic and
rubber substances used in manufacturing of protective glove include
eczema, contact urticaria, respiratory symptoms, and shock.
Additional studies regarding the
use of talc, absorbable powder, and starches in the manufacturing of
protective gloves or as an agent to ease the donning of gloves
indicate that these substances may pose risks of peritonitis,
granuloma, adhesions, and even death.
Optional use of textile absorbent
gloves as inserts for protective gloves became not only costly but
unsafe alternative, due to presence of residue from chlorine,
detergent, and resistant bacteria/fungi that continue to survive and
multiply inside of the textile
gloves.
Extrinsic Contamination
Sweat produced by human hands
inside of protective gloves induced by lack of air exchange and
higher temperature inside of the gloves in many instance are source
of Extrinsic contamination. Hand transfer can be a significant mode
of transmission of biological and/or bacterial material from person
to person, from person to surface or vice versa, and from person to
food. Most common types of Extrinsic contamination are Bacterial and
Biological contamination.
Extrinsic Bacterial Contamination
Touch-contact-associated
bacterial transfer is facilitated by wet hands as compared to dry
hands. Residual moisture contained on hands after removing
protective gloves and even after following hands washing has been
found to play an important role in the transfer of bacteria and
viruses.
Extrinsic Biological Contamination
Rapid developments in Hi-Tech
industries, bioengineering, genome studies, utilization of DNA
identification, etc... imposed extreme requirements on purification
of working contacts between human hands and objects of their labor.
Contamination of an object of work by employees' biological material
from sweat that accumulates inside of protective gloves may generate
troubles as inoffensive as a harmless blunder or as serious as the
life costly error.
Our search for ways to confine problems of
self and extrinsic contamination guided us to the only one practical
conclusion which was - "Sweat must be removed from inside of
protective gloves by all doable means ". This conclusion became our
foundation for development of Absorbent Disposable Gloves Inserts -
ABSORBinsTM
The page "Solutions" provides more in
detail information on the benefits our product offer in solving the
above problems.
Phone:
1- (585) 385-4945
Email: info@theptcdesign.com | 
