Fitting of Hand Gloves

Fitting of Personal Protective Equipment – hand gloves

Unless strictly required by works, most people do not like to wear hand gloves for their works. In most cases, they do not want to wear hand gloves because of the following reasons:

1. It is hot and wet inside, very uncomfortable.
2. They can not work with gloves. They make hands clumsy.

It is true that in tropical country like ours, it is always hot and humid.  Our hands sweat in the gloves.  It can be very uncomfortable particularly when you are wearing impermeable rubber gloves.  This is something we can not do much to improve the problem.  I shall talk about this in my next articles.

For the second reasons, in most cases, it is due to glove sizes too large or too small – the fitting problem.  Many people overlook this and they just wear what they are given or what are available.

Like wearing a pair of shoes, you must wear a pair of well fitted gloves for comfort and safety.  The reasons are simple.  Wearing gloves too small will cause fatigue to the hands.  Too large causes your hands losing dexterity and sensitivity.  Loose edges or extra length at finger tips are dangerous – they can easily get caught on moving parts of the machine.

Although losing some dexterity and sensitivity is inevitable, you can minimize these side effects by paying attention to selecting

1. The right type of gloves (for your job) and
2. The right size that fit best to your hands.

It can be done because there are so many types of hand gloves in the market.  You can always find one best suit for your job and best fitted to your hands.

For example, if I am a mechanic repairing automobile and a lot of time handling small parts, I would like to have a pair of hand gloves with the following qualities:

1. They must fit well to my hands with no loose edges and extra length at finger tips.  Skin tight will be best.
2. They must be thick or tough enough to protect my hands from cuts or other mechanical injuries but not too thick to loose the dexterity I need to handle small parts like nuts.
3. I should feel confident in using small hand tools.
4. They must be able to protect my hand from the hazardous oils and grease.

Can you find this type of gloves in the market? Yes, definitely. They are available.  Although they may cost you more, you should provide a budget in your expenditure.

Remember, like many other things in life, there is always a cost to pay for the quality of life and the protection you needed.

If you do not want to spend on the gloves, then, you will expose you bare hands to all the potential hazards you may be facing while performing your works.

Put your risks on one side of the balance and costs on the other side.  The choice is yours of course….

How to find the right size?

Use a flexible measuring tape around the knuckles of your right hand, if you are right-handed, left hand if you are left-handed.  If the measurement is 8 inches, your glove size should be 8 or medium. If it is between 8 and 9, it should be size 9 or large.

The final fitting of course will be donning the gloves onto your hands to see if they fit well.  Close you hand, you should not feel too tight.  There must not be loose edges or extra length at the finger tips.  You should feel comfortable and confident holding tools like spanners. Try to pick up small parts like nuts. If they do not provide the dexterity you need, discard them and try another brand or type of gloves until you find one that fits best to your hand.

Not many employers will provide choices of hand gloves for individual fitting. For critical works, they may have to do so.

Remember, some patient and practices are all you needed to train yourself in using hand glove.  At the beginning, you may feel that you can not work with hand gloves.  If you persist, you will appreciate hand gloves that are keeping your hand clean and one day you will feel that you can not work without hand gloves.

A word of tip: If your hands sweat in the gloves, you can wear a glove liner or apply hand lotion that reduce sweating.

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4. Semi-leather hand gloves
5. Ansell Edmont Nitrasafe Gloves