In a previous article we gave details of Safety Gloves for protecting against the risk of handling chemical and biological hazards, now we will give information on other types of safety gloves to protect against other hazards.
Safety Gloves should be issued and worn after undertaking a Risk Assessment for people who have to handle or come into contact with:
Materials with sharp or rough edges
Very hot or very cold materials
Fire
Electrical current
There are certain standards that have to be conformed to:
EN 388 is for gloves designed to provide protection against mechanical risks. It specifies requirements for resistance to damage from abrasion, perforation, tearing and cutting.
EN 407 is for gloves designed to provide protection against thermal hazards e.g. heat and or fire.
EN 511 is for gloves designed to protect from cold conditions.
EN 12477 is for gloves designed to give protection when using welding equipment.
Gloves for protection against mechanical hazards usually have a fabric base to provide resistance to damage. For years the outer fabric was leather but now the outer is made from a polymer that gives protection from water and chemicals. For resistance to cuts the outer is often made of synthetic high performance yarns
Safety Gloves should be issued and worn after undertaking a Risk Assessment for people who have to handle:
Hazardous materials
Toxic chemicals
Corrosive materials
No single glove will meet the needs of everyone. Gloves must be selected on the basis of the materials being handled and the type of work undertaken.
The use of protective gloves should be seen as a control measure of last resort and should always be used in conjunction with other measures. This is because:
Gloves only protect the wearer – they do not remove the contaminant from the workplace environment.
If protective gloves are used incorrectly, or badly maintained, the wearer may not be protected - when gloves fail they fail completely which then exposes the user to the hazard.
Gloves themselves can cause skin problems.
Wearing gloves interferes with the wearer’s sense of touch.
The extent of protection depends on good fit.
Some types of glove are inconvenient and interfere with the way people work.
However, by selecting the right glove for the task at hand, understanding the limits of the selected glove and by knowing how to correctly use them, gloves can help to remove dangerous exposures.
There are various standards that have to be achieved for different risks.
Chainsaws are potentially one of the most dangerous tools in general use, the saw is made to cut easily through large branches and tree trunks so any part of the human body will have no resistance at all to the cutting power in use.
Therefore there are recognised standards for the PPE required to minimise the risks in the case of clothing these are the standards EN 381. These standards specify levels of protection related to the speed of the chain and also the amount of coverage of the protected areas.
Class 0 resists chains up to the speed of 16 metres per second Class 1 resists chains up to the speed of 20 metres per second Class 2 resists chains up to the speed of 24 metres per second Class 3 resists chains up to the speed of 28 metres per second Class 4 resists chains up to the speed of 34 metres per second
There are also different parts to the standards each of which covers a specific part of the body:
EN 381-5 Leg protection This is split into 3 different
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