Choosing correct safety gear

It is highly important to ensure that workers are always supplied with appropriate safety work gloves so that they don't bring their hands into direct contact with harmful substances or dangerous items that could damage their skin.

What to consider

When choosing safety work gloves there are some extremely important points to consider:

• The physical dimensions of the wearer

• What task they are undertaking

• How contact with substances occurs and for how long

• Other hazards that occur

In addition to this, if chemical processes are involved, you must also consider:

• Molecular level permeation of gloves

• Penetration through seams and pin holes

• Glove degradation through constant exposure

Safety work gloves are considered safety PPE equipments and must be treated as such. When considering gloves for use in dry and general purpose environments, regular safety work gloves, also known as rigger gloves, can be used. These should include knuckle straps, elastic tensioner, palm lining and a safety cuff, and often consist of a leather and cotton fabric combination.

Other uses for safety work gloves include use in construction, refuse collection, product assembly, warehouse use and material handling. Gloves for these uses are specially made using 13ga Nylon and nitrile foam dip, to provide increased gripping ability. These types of safety work gloves allow high levels of dexterity for the user and come in various dark colours, allowing for different colour coded gloves to be used for different purposes. Additionally, they are washable and mostly cut and abrasion resistant. Due to the long hours in which the gloves will be worn, it is important that they are comfortable and fit the user correctly; for comfort and dexterity issues.

Dangers in the workplace

As well as safety work gloves it is also important for employers to consider the safety elements of the other PPE equipments that they use. It is highly important that employees and supervisors are trained in the correct use of these PPE equipments, so that they are used as they were designed to be used. It is said that the major three types of injury in construction work are being hit or crushed by an object, falls in the workplace and overexertion. Employers can protect against these types of injuries by ensuring the correct use of safety PPE equipments with proper training and direction on use.

The major dangers on a construction site, and therefore causes of injury, are the moving of equipment, dangers involving cranes, crushing by to concrete and masonry, general dangers to the eyes or face, and general causes of hand injuries.

Using the correct PPE equipment can mean the difference between safety and injury, and should always be considered with utmost care. In some cases death may occur if the proper precautions are not taken to ensure safety; it is therefore an extremely important consideration for both employers and employees.

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