You have probably noticed that many first aid kits come with exam gloves. The need for exam gloves in first aid kits was driven by the need to protect oneself from blood borne pathogens ( also known as BBP); or diseases that can be transmitted via blood or other bodily fluids. Wearing hand protection or other personal protective equipment (known as PPE) is part of taking “universal precautions” to prevent infection. That’s a topic for another blog post, we all know to glove up so we’re going to stick to that topic here.
Back when this thing all got started latex medical grade exam gloves were recommended because that’s pretty much what was available. As this practice proliferated across the country more and more people started using these latex exam gloves. As more and more people used them the more we started hearing about allergic reactions to latex. Even though latex exam gloves were truly excellent protective barriers complaints started to come in.
So the glove companies started to develop alternative materials to manufacture their gloves from. Over time two materials came to dominate the market place. Those two materials were vinyl and nitrile.
Over time nitrile has demonstrated over and over again that it is the superior material for use as exam gloves for many purposes medical and industrial. You will find that nitrile gloves will fit snug on your hand, flex with your movement and provides the serious protection you expect in a glove.
For all these reasons we put nitrile exam gloves in all our of first aid kits at First Aid Supplies Online.COM. In addition these gloves are cost effective and relieve you of worries about allergic reactions.
As an interesting footnote, the new ANSI standard, Z308.1-2009 prohibits any latex product in a workplace first aid kit. What’s in your first aid kit?
