The Importance of Hand Protection & General Glove Types

Welcome back, let's Build Smart & Build Safe! This week, we're doing a deep dive into an essential piece of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Hand Protection. Hand injuries are one of the most frequent in construction, often leading to missed workdays and long-term issues.

The Problem: Not All Gloves Are Equal

Hand injuries often happen because a worker is wearing gloves, but they are the wrong type of glove for the specific hazard. A general leather work glove offers great abrasion protection but is useless against chemical splash or a severe laceration from sheet metal. Gloves are not one-size-fits-all.

Basic Construction Glove Categories

To choose the right glove, you must first classify the hazard you are trying to mitigate:

1. Leather Gloves

• Primary Protection: Excellent for abrasion resistance, rough handling, and heat protection (e.g., handling hot pipes or components).

• Drawback: Offers very low cut and virtually no puncture resistance. Dexterity is often compromised.

2. Coated (Dipped) Gloves

• Description: Gloves (often knit or cotton) where the palm and fingers are dipped in materials like Nitrile, Polyurethane, or Latex.

• Primary Protection: Provides enhanced grip (especially in wet or oily conditions) and basic chemical splash resistance.

• Use Case: General assembly, handling tools, and light-duty tasks where grip is essential.

3. High-Performance Fiber Gloves

• Description: Gloves woven with specialized materials like HPPE (High Performance Polyethylene) or Aramid fibers.

• Primary Protection: These are specifically designed for high-risk mechanical tasks and offer superior cut resistance while maintaining high levels of dexterity.

• Use Case: Handling sharp materials like sheet metal, glass, or rebar.

Tomorrow, we will learn how to decode the most important label on your glove: the ANSI/ISEA Cut Resistance Rating (A1 through A9).

Please share us with your friends for a daily dose of construction safety tips!

-The Safety Man