Lectures / Selecting Hand Protection for Real Hazards
Selecting Hand Protection for Real Hazards
Gloves are the most-issued and most-misunderstood item of PPE. We work through matching glove materials to chemical and mechanical hazards, reading the EN performance markings, and why the wrong glove can be more dangerous than none at all.
Lecture · Hand Protection
Matching glove selection to the real hazard present.
What you will take away
By the end of this session you will understand the key principles behind hand protection and be able to apply them to your own workplace with confidence. The lecture keeps the theory practical and connects every point back to the relevant EN standards and tools available across SafetyOrbit.
Watch and follow up
Live sessions are announced on the Training Calendar, and recordings are added to the Lectures library afterwards. To go deeper on the standards referenced here, visit the EN Standards Library.
Different glove materials suit different hazard types – mechanical, chemical, thermal or cold.
Frequently asked questions
Why can the wrong glove be more dangerous than no glove?
A glove rated for the wrong hazard – for instance a general-purpose glove used against a solvent – can give a false sense of protection while chemicals permeate through it unnoticed, or can itself create a snagging hazard around moving machinery.
How should glove material be matched to a hazard?
Match the specific hazard – mechanical, chemical, thermal or cold – to a glove tested and marked against that hazard under the relevant EN standard, rather than choosing by comfort or habit alone.
What do the EN glove performance markings mean?
They are pictogram-and-number ratings printed on the glove or its packaging that indicate tested performance levels for hazards such as abrasion, cut, tear and puncture resistance, letting a buyer compare gloves objectively.
Can one glove cover multiple hazards on the same task?
Sometimes, if a single glove is certified against all the relevant hazard classes for that task, but where hazards are very different, such as chemical plus thermal, two glove types or a layered system is often the safer answer.
Where does this lecture connect on SafetyOrbit?
It links to the EN standards covering glove certification and to related hand-protection selector tools on the site.