Four Times You Should ALWAYS Change Your Gloves
Gloves play an essential role in food safety. Used correctly, they can prevent many foodborne illnesses. They prevent bare-hand contact with food by providing a barrier between your hands and the food you prepare. If used incorrectly, they can harbor dangerous pathogens and spread many diseases.
Before donning a new pair of single-use disposable gloves, always wash your hands. If you forget to wash your hands, your gloves may become contaminated with the pathogens that were on your hands. Remember to be careful when putting on your gloves. Touch the gloves by the cuff, or opening, of the glove to help keep your gloves free from contamination.
Knowing how and when to change your gloves can help you become a food safety proponent. Here is a list of four times you should always change your gloves:
1. Change Gloves When Switching Tasks
You should always wash your hands and change your gloves when switching tasks, taking out the garbage, or after coming back from a break.
For example, if you have been chopping raw chicken, but will now be slicing vegetables and forgot to change your gloves, the pathogens from the raw chicken will now be transferred to the vegetables.
To prevent this from happening, wash your hands and put on a new pair of gloves. Easy as that!
2. When Gloves are Torn or Dirty
When your gloves become torn, there is a chance that you could accidentally touch ready-to-eat foods with your bare hands. Because our hands are covered in germs, bare-hand contact with food can be dangerous.
If you see any holes or tears in your disposable gloves, throw them away, wash your hands, and put on a new pair. You should also change your gloves if you notice that they are dirty.
3. After 4 Continuous Hours
Bacteria and viruses can grow to dangerous levels if allowed. If your gloves haven’t become torn or dirty, the FDA recommends washing hands and putting on new gloves after 4 hours of continuous use.
After 4 hours, pathogens could spread and contaminate the food you are working on. Remember to keep in mind how long you have been working on one task and change your gloves at the appropriate time.
4. After Touching Your Hair or Face
You have germs all over your body and may accidentally brush a hair out of your face or scratch an itch on your arm. Keep in mind that anything you touch with your gloves could contaminate them.
If you do end up touching your hair, face, or other parts of your body, remember to wash your hands and put on new gloves before continuing to prepare food.
Nitrile vs Vinyl Gloves - A Detailed Comparison
What are the differences between nitrile vs vinyl gloves? Which is better for what purposes?
While nitrile gloves are generally more expensive than vinyl gloves, they offer a number of advantages over vinyl. When choosing disposable gloves, the main issue to consider is which ones are appropriate for the task at hand.
The purpose of this guide is not to give you a definitive answer on which type of glove is better. Rather, it will provide information about nitrile and vinyl gloves that allow you to make your own decision based on your needs.
What are Nitrile Gloves?
Nitrile is a synthetic rubber that offers flexibility, long-life durability, and chemical resistance. Nitrile is a synthetic elastomer designed to be moisture resistant. Disposable nitrile gloves are flexible and durable making them ideal for industrial tasks, the food industry, and health care applications. They are also great for most medical environments.
What are Nitrile Gloves Made From?
Nitrile gloves are made from synthetic rubber called acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber. This material provides users with heightened tactile sensitivity, allowing you to pick up small items such as screws and needles more accurately. They are also more puncture resistant.
The disposable glove materials were first developed to solve the common problems of allergic reactions to natural rubber latex gloves and low protection against solvents. They are the most popular glove materials used in many industries and the ideal alternative to disposable latex gloves.
What are Nitrile Gloves Used For?
Nitrile gloves are used for a variety of industrial, domestic, and healthcare purposes. Nitrile gloves are the popular choice for health care workers, dentistry, beauty shop owners, healthcare providers, laboratory work, food handling, chemical handling, and general industrial tasks.
Nitrile protective gloves can also be found in the automotive industry and janitorial industry. Nitrile was found to be more durable than vinyl when performing gripping tasks with power tools and picking up tools like wrenches and screwdrivers.
What are the Advantages of Nitrile Gloves?
Because nitrile is naturally resistant to oils, it can offer extra protection for people working with oily substances such as motor oils, adhesives like epoxies, and other petroleum based chemicals or lubricants.
Nitrile gloves offer many advantages over vinyl gloves that include:
High chemical resistance
Highly resistant to oils, fats, and petroleum-based products
Superior puncture resistance
High level of touch sensitivity
Mimics the fit and feel of latex gloves
Best for high-risk situations around infectious materials
Great fit molding to hand
Long lasting durability and flexible
Lightweight and breathable material, easy to use
Available in powdered and powder-free
Can be worn for longer periods of time
Latex-free, protein-free, and allergy-free
Long shelf life
What are the Disadvantages of Nitrile Gloves?
Costs are often higher than vinyl gloves making it a more expensive option
Not biodegradable but this is changing
What are Vinyl Gloves?
Vinyl gloves are also made of a synthetic polymer but are often less thick and, as a result, less durable. Vinyl is great for non-hazardous situations but does not have the flexibility of nitrile.
What are Vinyl Gloves Made From?
Vinyl gloves are made from a blend of synthetic rubber, plasticizers, and additives called PVC. They were also developed as a great option for those suffering from latex allergies.
Vinyl vs Nitrile vs Latex Gloves
Many caregiving responsibilities require medical-grade gloves. Gloves protect you and your loved one’s skin, reduce the risk of microbial contamination, and provide a more sanitary environment. But if you’re a new caregiver, it’s normal to wonder about the difference between vinyl vs. nitrile vs. latex gloves. These glove materials look similar, but they offer different strengths and weaknesses. To make the research process a bit easier, we’ve compiled a helpful guide.
Vinyl, nitrile, and latex gloves are all considered medical-grade, but they have unique features.
Vinyl gloves.
Vinyl is a synthetic polymer derived from petroleum. It’s latex-free, affordable, and used in dozens of applications. Vinyl gloves can be found at nearly any retailer, but they aren’t ideal for caregiving. That’s because they’re less durable than nitrile or latex gloves and provide limited protection against chemicals, bacteria, and other microbes.
Nitrile gloves.
Nitrile is a type of synthetic rubber. It’s incredibly durable, latex-free, and specifically designed for medical applications. Nitrile gloves were first developed during the early 90s’. Since then, they’ve become the go-to glove for many doctors, nurses, and home caregivers. Nitrile gloves are unique in that they tear easily. This feature makes it simple to tell if a glove (or pair of gloves) is compromised.
Latex gloves.
Latex gloves are made of rubber. They’re comfortable, can be used for medical applications, and encourage optimal finger dexterity. The only real downside is they’re made of latex. Researchers estimate more than 1% of Americans suffer from a latex allergy. If your loved one is one of these individuals, make sure to use nitrile or vinyl gloves instead.
What are the Benefits of Disposable Nitrile Gloves?
Disposable nitrile gloves offer superior performance in a variety of work applications and across a broad range of industries. Nitrile disposable gloves are a popular alternative to latex gloves in many professions. There are lots of reasons why disposable nitrile gloves are the best choice for tough jobs. What are the benefits of disposable nitrile gloves?
Many professions rely on the durability of Nitrile gloves, especially when exposure to blood borne pathogens and other environmental contaminants are of concern. Nitrile gloves, such as, AMMEX Powder Free Indigo Nitrile Exam, are FDA approved for medical use and are highly puncture resistant providing excellent durability, and barrier protection. These gloves are powder free, so you don’t have to worry about messy powder when working with fresh adhesives or ink. AMMEX Powder Free Indigo Nitrile gloves are commonly used by medical and dental professionals, tattoo artists, spas and salons, and in laboratory settings. These gloves are also FDA approved for food service. AMMEX nitrile exam gloves are perfect for doctors, nurses, emergency medical technicians, tattoo artists, dentists, veterinary, and laboratory workers.
What Are the Types of Non-woven Fabrics?
The fibers used in producing nonwoven fabrics are mainly polypropylene (PP) and polyester (PET). In addition, there are nylon (PA), viscose fiber, acrylic fiber, polyethene fiber (HDPE), and chlorine fibre (PVC). According to application requirements, nonwoven fabrics are divided into disposable application and durable types. According to the production process, nonwoven fabrics are mainly divided into the following types.
1. Spunlace nonwoven fabric
The spunlace process is to spray a high-pressure fine water stream onto one or more layers of fiber webs to entangle the fibres with each other so that the fiber webs can be reinforced and have a certain strength.
2. Heat-sealing nonwoven fabric
Thermal bonding nonwoven fabric adds fibrous or powdery hot-melt bonding material to the fiber web. The fiber web is heated, melted and cooled to be consolidated into a cloth.
3. Pulp air-laid nonwoven fabric
Airlaid nonwoven fabrics can also be called dust-free paper and dry-laid nonwoven fabrics. It uses air-laid technology to open the wood pulp fiberboard into a single fiber state. It then uses the air-flow method to agglomerate the fibers on the web surface and reinforces the fiber web into a cloth.
4. Wet nonwoven fabric
The wet-laid nonwoven fabric is to open the fiber raw materials placed in the water medium into single fibers, and at the same time mix different fiber raw materials to form a fiber suspension slurry, which is transported to a web forming mechanism, and the fibers are formed into a web in a wet state.
5. Spunbond nonwoven fabric
Spunbond nonwoven fabrics are formed after the polymer has been extruded and stretched to form continuous filaments. The filaments are laid into a net. The fiber net is then bonded, thermally bonded, chemically bonded or mechanically reinforced to make The web a nonwoven fabric.
6. Meltblown nonwoven fabric
The process of meltblown nonwoven fabric: polymer feeding-melt extrusion-fiber formation-fiber cooling-net formation-reinforcement into cloth.
7. Needle punched nonwoven fabric
Needle-punched nonwoven fabrics are a kind of dry-laid nonwoven fabrics. Needle-punched nonwoven fabrics use the puncture effect of needles to reinforce the fluffy web into a fabric.
8. Stitched nonwoven fabric
Stitched nonwoven fabrics are a kind of dry-laid nonwoven fabrics. The stitching method uses a warp-knitted loop structure to couple fiber webs, yarn layers, nonwoven materials (such as plastic sheets, plastic thin metal foils, etc.) or their combination. The body is reinforced to make a nonwoven fabric.
