Laboratory Gloves

Gloves are the most basic of safety equipment used in laboratories and most gloves are made from rubber or material that seems to be rubber. In fact, when any laboratory technician, assistant or a scientist embarks on an experiment the first item they put on are the gloves. Although laboratory gloves have become an instinctive safety precaution for laboratory workers and seem as though they have been around a long time, they have an interesting history.

Rubber was discovered in the 16th century and has been used in raw form until mid 19th century until Charles Goodyear invented the vulcanization process. This was a revolutionary step in the history of rubber and it enabled rubber’s use for pneumatic tires, gloves and thousands of other applications. Central and Southern America were the largest producers of raw latex used to make rubber and it was exported to al other countries.

The Para rubber from Amazon was the most in Demand and was produced only in the Amazon basin for many years. However, this changed when the Para rubber seeds were smuggled into England (1876) who sent it to Malay and Sri Lanka for cultivation. This began the revolutionary East Asian rubber industry. The next breakthrough came from Germany when they invented the Buna rubber in 1927. During WW II, the Easy Asian rubber supply was cut off to US and it started large scale production of Buna S (Nitrile). Currently, US alone uses about 2 billion rubber gloves a year and they are used by almost everyone, scientists for experiments and housewives to dye their hair.

Gloves manufactured in the 1950’s and 1960’s were not very good since they did not fit well and had limited sensitivity. However, they were protective and inexpensive. Today the applications for gloves have changed drastically and the uses have become quite sensitive. As a result the variety of rubber gloves have increased and the material used to manufacture them has undergone a lot of change.

With the rise in potential hazards, safety gloves used in laboratories offer protection from heat, fire and a variety of other hazards that also include microbial ones. Hazards and tactile functionality have only increased over the years and laboratory gloves have evolved to meet the challenge head-on.

The most prevalent and used gloves today are the nitrile gloves. These gloves are disposable and are made from synthetic rubber. Since they are synthetic they do not react like natural rubber that contains latex proteins in addition to offering better resistance to wear and tear. These gloves are puncture resistant and are regarded as a standard in the industry for the best protection.

Unlike other forms of gloves, nitrile gloves are easy to slide on and are not friction resistant making them easy to use. They can be manufactured and are in various sizes and forms, textures, thickness and cuff-lengths to fit most people without a bother of using cornstarch powder to ease friction.

Nitrile gloves offer a higher degree of flexibility than other gloves and have proven to have better solvent resistance. The only downside of nitrile gloves is that they need to be stored at normal temperatures so that they do not disintegrate due to excessive heat. But then, that is the case with all gloves.

Nitrile gloves come in various grades and are tested by FDA accordingly. The basic grades are three – utility, medical grade and the high-risk ones. In all categories nitrile gloves are the best in the industry and are endorsed by almost everyone who uses them.