Hand protection required in the laboratory is usually from exposure to chemical, biological, or radiological substances. Gloves may be also be required to protect work from the worker. Most laboratories have latex or vinyl gloves available which are usually effective against biological contaminants and in providing protection for the work but these do not provide effective protection from many chemical agents. The wrong type of glove may absorb and transmit the substance rapidly or cause a breakdown of the fabric and lead to an inadvertent exposure, creating a greater hazard than no glove at all. Risk assessments should always specify the exact type of gloves to be used.
If your technique is good, the nature of the substance allows it, and you have other forms of control available, it can sometimes be more effective not to wear gloves but the University would need to know that this is the case in the form of a written assessment. You should not wear gloves outside the laboratory or when touching doors, telephones, switches etc. If you need to transport hazardous items from lab to lab you should do so in a suitable container such as a Tupperware box - it is all too easy to unwittingly contaminate communal items that will be touched by other members of staff not wearing gloves. Routinely ignoring this basic tenet, even if using gloves to protect the work, lowers the general hygiene standards and enables serious contamination to occur more easily.
The following standards apply to the various hazards but you should ensure that even with the correct standard, the glove you use provides protection from the substances being used and the way it is being used - longer length gloves may be required for particularly hazardous tasks such as handling large volumes of acid, or thicker gloves may be required where contamination may be considerable and the breakthrough permeation time of a normal disposable glove is shorter than the length of the task.
EN374: Micro-organisms and Chemical Hazards
EN388: Mechanical Hazards
EN407: Heat and Fire
EN420: General Requirements
EN421: Radioactive Contamination
EN511: Cold Hazards
Chemical resistance - General guidelines for chemical groups
Specific chemical resistances - Chemicals A to D, Chemicals E to M, Chemicals N to Z
Pleaseuse the aboveinformation to determine the type of glove appropriate to your needs. Degradation rating gives a good idea of the suitability of the glove for the task and breakthrough permeation rates provide more detailed information on that suitability. Values given are for thicker Marigold-style gloves not single use type.
PVA = Polyvinyl Alcohol provides good protection against many solvents. N.B.dissolves in water! Not recommended for general laboratory use and only availabe in industrial thickness and style.
PTCL Oxford selection by glove material
PTCL Oxford selection by chemical
University of Maryland chemical resistance chart
California State Polytechnic chemical resistance chart
Oklahoma
State University chemical resistant chart