Gloves By Web

Hundreds of industries have joined in the struggle to “go green” by lowering their carbon footprint, using recycled materials, or reducing the amount of waste they produce. But can the disposable glove industry dream of joining them? Even though many green strategies can’t be used – the vast majority of nitrile gloves are definitely not recyclable and rarely reusable – glove manufacturers are still making great strides. Here’s how.

Focus 1: The Gloves

Millions of disposable gloves will end up in landfills each year. Initially, there might seem to be no way to temper the environmental damage that this can wreak.

However, it’s important to know that latex gloves, at least, are made from natural rubber, which is a renewable resource that can be extracted from living trees. Other gloves can be partially made from ground-up tires.

Nitrile gloves, on the other hand are more difficult to “green.” Yet even here, innovation has come through; recently, one glove manufacturer engineered a biodegradable disposable nitrile glove that breaks down only when placed in a landfill. Since nitrile has always been viewed as innately non-biodegradable, this is a breakthrough in environmentally sound glove production,.

Focus 2: The Manufacturing Process

Interestingly, the process of manufacturing disposable gloves has seen numerous opportunities for environmentally responsible changes. Some glove manufacturers have modified their existing machinery to ensure that they consume less fuel. Some use electricity supplied from renewable resources, such as solar or wind energy, and some have even begun to use biomass boilers that burn nut shells or other waste products to power their machinery. They can also try to make the most efficient use of the energy produced by recycling any hot air that escapes, reintroducing it to the manufacturing process by using heat exchange units.

In addition, some glove manufacturers opt for minimizing the use of chemicals that are environmentally harmful. They replace these with chemistry systems that have less of an impact on the environment, as well as less toxicity to humans and animals.

Focus 3: The Waste Products

Although disposable gloves themselves are meant to be thrown away, there is also the material used to hold the gloves. Some companies are “going green” when it comes to packaging methods. Glove manufacturers can focus on manufacturing all glove boxes out of recycled materials, as well as keeping them as compact as possible to minimize waste.

Water pollution can also be a byproduct of the production process. Glove manufacturers can clean the wastewater exiting their facilities, ensuring that it returns to the environment even cleaner than it was before.

Focus 4: The Distribution Process

Even the process of distributing disposable gloves can be made more environmentally conscious through shifting production to local facilities rather than shipping the gloves long distances. This reduces transportation-related pollution. Distributors can also make maximize the space in each shipment, which reduces the number of containers used in the shipping process.

While different manufacturing companies are approaching this issue in different ways, the industry as a whole has made great strides in meeting the challenge of becoming more environmentally responsible. Future developments in manufacturing technology will go a long way towards providing other methods for environmentally conscious glove manufacturers to “go green” in a meaningful way.

"Can you believe that Americans trek germs into their houses on the bottoms of their shoes? Do they enjoy spreading germs from outside all over their floors?"

 We Americans believe ourselves lucky to live in such a hygienic country. But people from other cultures may not agree, pointing to some of our surprisingly unhygienic practices. Here’s a roundup of a few of the “disgusting habits” that can shock people from other cultures when they see Americans practicing them.

Toileting

 Would you believe that in some countries they use the same room for bodily waste as they do for washing hands and brushing teeth? Oh, wait, that’s true for most Western countries. But a home in Japan may have up to three separate rooms to house the amenities that we generally have all in one bathroom: one room for the bathtub, one for the toilet, and one for the sink. A great way to keep all the germs away from the clean areas, isn’t it?

 Some Japanese would also flinch at the fact that we wear shoes into the bathroom and then out into the rest of the house. Who knows how many bathroom germs we’re tracking all over the floor! In some traditional locations in Japan, you must change from regular slippers into special "bathroom slippers" before entering the restroom.

Washing Up

 Even some practices that seem non-hygenic can lead to people staying cleaner in the long run. For example, many Asian cultures did not accept the practice of applying perfumes or deodorants until relatively recently. Because of this, they would control body odor by bathing more than once a day.

 And then there are those who may have been cleaner for generations because of religious rites. For example, Sikhs have always believed in the importance of washing their hands well before touching an open wound, even long before doctors in other countries were washing their hands before surgery. Practicing Muslims perform ablutions before praying, and practicing Jews wash their hands before eating bread or after touching an area that is generally clothed. In some West African countries, people are required to wash their hands before raising food or drink to their lips. They also have the custom to place a bowl of leaf-infused water outside so that visitors can cleanse their hands and faces before entering the home.

Spreading Germs

 If you were looking for an easy way to spread germs between people, you’d probably opt to shake the hand of every person you’d meet. Surprisingly, that’s what happens in most business (or personal) relationships in America. In other cultures, people bow, potentially cutting down on the spread of germs. Unless you’re wearing protective gloves, shaking hands exposes your business partners to your germs, and vice-versa.

 Even when Americans know that they are sick, they sneeze into their hands – or, at best, into their elbows. In Japan, even if you only have a cold, you would wear a protective face mask to prevent the spread of germs. Which makes more sense?

 In India and other Asian countries, they actually differentiate between the roles of each hand, which may help to cut down on the spread of germs as well. Eating and touching others is done only with the right hand, whereas putting on your shoes, touching your feet, and cleansing oneself after the bathroom are all done with the left hand.

It’s All What You’re Used To

 In the end, habits are powerful things. We tend to do what our parents did, and our children tend to do what we do. Changing hygiene habits is hard, and sometimes it’s simply socially unacceptable… you try wearing a face mask in public the next time you have a cold!

 No matter what culture you’re from, healthy hand washing habits are essential for removing the germs that we inevitably come into contact with. And of course, if you’re touching other people’s food or bodies for a living, you should be wearing protective apparel to shield them and you from danger. Stay safe! 

My dad had the strongest hands.

When my brother and I were kids, Dad used to keep us entertained by ripping the Cincinnati White Pages in two with his bare hands.

Testosterone used to run wild in our house. With two boys and a fun-loving dad squeezed under one roof, my mother was definitely outnumbered. We’d roughhouse together, us boys racing through my dad’s fingers and slipping away by the skin of our teeth. We knew that if he caught us in those iron hands, it was all over.

Even when I grew older and moved away to college, I knew that his hands were as strong as ever. Once, when I arrived home, I greeted him by lifting him up and putting him on my shoulders like a sack of potatoes. I felt so strong, so powerful. But no matter how strong I became, I could never compete with the strength of his hands.

Through his own sweat, he eventually climbed the ladder to become president of the largest Savings & Loan in Wisconsin, worth over a billion dollars at that time. This was a tremendous accomplishment. He was on the board of 28 different firms, and incredibly involved in the community.

I wish that his strong hands had held on until my daughter was born so he could have met her. He passed away at age 67 from a heart attack, just a few months before she was born.

But those hands gave me the chance to start my professional life anew. I had been working in the financial services field for many years, and was doing well, but the travel was constant. Then one year my mom couldn’t make it to a shareholder’s meeting for one of the companies on which my dad had been a board member. Always the dutiful son, I sat in for her.

At the meeting, a shareholder mentioned that the company had a subsidiary in Michigan that sold sterilization monitors. He asked the CEO what he planned to do with it, and the CEO said that if he found the right buyer, he would sell the subsidiary.  I called the CEO that evening and offered to buy it. After some due diligence, the deal was completed, and I was the owner of a 100-year old company selling sterilization monitors.  All of the sudden, I was spending my nights and weekends marketing the product as a long-distance, absentee owner. Between managing the new company and working at my day job, I was busier than ever.

Then something tragic occurred that caused me to reconsider my priorities. My daughter passed away unexpectedly, which was a blow to me and to my entire family.

I felt ready to make some changes in my professional life. On the one-year anniversary of my daughter’s death, I turned in a letter of resignation to my financial services job and started managing the company fulltime.

Around the same time, someone who worked for a glove manufacturer called me and gave me the advice of a lifetime: I had all these connections to labs at colleges and universities, so why not sell them protective gloves as well?

And so, Gloves By Web began.

My father’s strong hands had finally come full circle. It takes 35 muscles to move the fingers and thumb, and my father had full control of all of them. My Dad had the strongest hands, and I grew up – and still am – in awe of just how strong they were. But strong hands are not necessarily safe hands. Workers in all sorts of industries – from medical research to manufacturing – need protective gloves to keep their hands safe. I am glad to be part of Gloves By Web, a company that distributes high-quality protective gloves to make sure that strong hands are safe hands.

Self-cleaning windows…lighter, stronger car parts… tattoos that can monitor a diabetic’s blood glucose levels. All of these inventions are now possible due to new techniques in the field of nanotechnology.

But if you’re working in a nanotechnology lab, are you putting yourself in danger? The answer is unclear. Understanding the safety hazards of nanoparticles can help you keep yourself safe in the lab.

Nanotechnology Basics

The prefix “nano” comes from the Greek root meaning “dwarf.” One nanometer is a billionth of a meter – about 80,000 times less than the thickness of a human hair. Nanotechnology makes use of nano-sized materials, usually between 1 and 100 nanometers in diameter, to produce substances with specific properties that typical materials just can’t compete with.

But nanotechnology is such a new field that some fear it may put workers in danger. After all, the fact that larger particles cannot pass through a given set of protective gloves does not mean that the same thing applies to nanoparticles. And nanoparticles may not be as innocent as they sound when it comes to worker safety.

Nanoparticle Research – Dangerous?

If nanoparticles touch the skin or are inhaled, they may pose a health hazard to workers. Although research on the topic is still in development, it seems that nanoparticles can enter the respiratory tract or the skin and make their way to the bloodstream, which may carry the nanoparticles to various organs.

Nanoparticles in the bloodstream could cross the blood-brain barrier, according to the American Chemical Society (ACS). The Center for Disease Control (CDC) says that some nanoparticles can have a catalytic effect, in ways that we can’t necessarily predict. They also cite animal studies suggesting that nanoparticles can cause pulmonary inflammation or lung tumors if inhaled.

What the Research Says

Although protective gloves can guard the hand against coming into contact with most chemicals, nanoparticles are so tiny that they may be able to slip through the glove and onto the wearer’s skin.

So what type of protective gloves should be used when dealing with nanoparticles? Because this field is still so new, the guidelines are still in flux, but research does seem to show that the type of glove can make a difference in protecting workers from nanoparticles.

In 2014, researchers in Montreal tested several different types of gloves – nitrile gloves at NBR-100, nitrile gloves at NBR-200, latex gloves, and non-disposable butyl rubber gloves – to determine which protected the wearer’s hands against titanium dioxide nanoparticles dissolved in water. Both the thin nitrile glove and the thick butyl glove failed to block the nanoparticles, whereas the thick nitrile and latex gloves successfully blocked a higher percentage of the nanoparticles.

The study also pointed out that pinholes in the gloves may allow the nanoparticles to penetrate, regardless of the type of glove being tested. All thin-modulus gloves contain pinholes, with the FDA listing minimum pinhole requirements for medical gloves (1.5 AQL) and non-medical gloves (2.5 AQL). Because these pinholes can reduce the effectiveness of the gloves against nanoparticles, workers should replace the gloves often – especially when using a colloidal solution.

Guidelines for Nanoparticle Safety

So what should you do in order to keep yourself safe when working with nanoparticles? Ideally, the selection of all personal protective equipment (PPE) should evolve from a Risk Assessment. Here are some loose guidelines to keep in mind:

• While no glove is foolproof, when working with nanoparticles you should err on the side of caution by choosing a medical-grade glove that passes FDA biocompatibility guidelines and passes ASTM permeability testing, such as the Cobalt nitrile glove.
• Your gloves should cover both your hands and wrists completely, and should overlap the sleeves of your lab coat or bunnysuit.
• Consider double gloving in order to minimize the likelihood of nanoparticles coming into contact with your skin due to pinholes in the gloves.
• If you are in a situation where nanoparticles may enter the air, use a respirator to ensure that they cannot enter your lungs.

Pest control techs are notorious for not using personal protective equipment (PPE) like gloves, hardhats, safety glasses, bunnysuits, or respirators.

If you’re guilty of walking into “the line of fire” unprotected, you can come clean … many pest control professionals have done the same. But whether you're a technician, a supervisor, or the boss, there's no excuse for not using PPE when you face real hazards at work. PPE protects you from numerous dangers that you could face throughout a normal day of work.

Still, there are lots of bad reasons for not wearing PPE. Here are some of our favorites:

Excuse #1

"A respirator? Give me a break. I've been doing this work for years and I haven't gotten sick yet. It's just bureaucrats and lawyers exaggerating the risk. "

Well... no. There's no exaggeration. The requirement to wear a respirator is based on hard science: toxicology, chemistry, and medicine. If safety rules or a pesticide label mandate a respirator, not wearing one could damage your health and you wouldn’t even recognize it until it's too late.

Excuse #2   

"I didn't know I needed gloves (or safety glasses, or a respirator) for that."

It's part of a tech's job to recognize potential hazards and to stay protected from them, including wearing PPE. Read those precautionary statements on the label – you might be surprised at what you find there. For example, did you know that rodenticide labels often require that you wear long-sleeve shirts, socks, long pants, and waterproof gloves, and that you wash the gloves before taking them off?

Excuse #3

"It's really uncomfortable doing pest control work wearing this gear."

You hear this excuse the most when working in hot, confined, or dusty worksites such as attics and crawlspaces. But uncomfortable sites are typically the ones where you most need PPE. Attics and crawlspaces can have protruding nails, irritating insulation fibers, airborne insecticide dust, allergens, pathogens, and spores from bat, bird, or other animal droppings. And pesticides in hot sites are more likely to evaporate and become airborne, increasing your risk of inhalation. You might need the whole package—gloves, respirator, eye protection, hardhat, and a bunnysuit—for these worksites.     

Excuse #4

"Come on, this stuff looks stupid. And it scares the hell out of my customers."

Wearing PPE makes you look more professional, not stupid. Customers like seeing that you’re taking safety precautions, because it means you know how to keep them safe.

Here’s what customers need to know. The real risk of exposure to pesticides occurs during the application. There is actually very little risk afterwards.  All pesticides on the market have passed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determination that they can be applied in homes or other sites without posing harm to the people and pets who reside there.

While these are all creative (and common) excuses, at the end of the day, none of them are worth risking your health. So be smart, and commit to a culture of safety—one that is practiced every day.