6 Common Misconceptions About Safety Programs for Gloves

1. Cut-Only Protection Will Prevent Most "Cut" Injuries and Meet Your Safety Program Objectives 

One of the key elements of planning a glove safety program is understanding that cut injuries often start as a puncture event. For many safety programs the box cutter is the classic source of "cut" injuries and most companies have multiple box cutter injuries reported. In fact, the tip of the blade has to puncture the glove before it cuts the users hand. Many "cut" injuries are more than 50% the result of initial punctures from the threat. Glass, wire, wood splinters, sheet metal, nails and needles all cause more puncture than cut only injuries. The Turtleskin line of CP cut and puncture gloves lets you get both kinds of protection in one glove.

The Box Cutter is the classic source of "cut" injuries.

2.The Higher the Level of Protection, the Better the Glove

When choosing a glove with high protection levels, the dexterity of the glove drops. This can lead to unhappy wearers. The dexterity, comfort and the protection have to be in balance. The base level 300 series CP gloves have the ANSI's highest cut level 5 performance and mid level puncture. This is often the right balance of protection. You get good puncture and max cut with good dexterity. For jobs that require more protection, but less dexterity, consider choosing the 400 and 500 series CP gloves to maximize puncture protection without sacrificing dexterity.

The 300 Series CP Gloves offer the best combination of Dexterity and Protection

3. Choose a Glove with a Larger Protective Coverage Area, Even if You Don't Need It

Safety Officers naturally look to maximize injury reduction. At some level, this means that you should maximize the cut and puncture coverage area in your glove selection. But which level of coverage will best suit your needs without impacting performance? We recommend that you look at your injury location data and only add coverage when you have a real opportunity to reduce lost time. We have the industry standard 300 level palm protection, we have 330 coverage with finger tip and side of hands. We have 350 level that adds back of hand coverage to the palm, tips, and side protection. Last but not least we have 360 protection which is 100% coverage of the hand. This rich set of product options will provide you with the selection you need.

No matter your protection needs, the CP Glove Line has you covered

4. Palm Protection and Back-of-Hand Protection are More Important than Adding Fingertip Protection

For many users, back of hand injuries are not really on the back of the palm, the injuries are on the fingertips. Consider adding fingertip protection with our TurtleSkin and CP 330 products first before looking at 350 (back of hand) or 360 (100% coverage.) The 330 type fingertip protection is unique to Turtleskin and gives you a lot of  protection with very little impact on dexterity.

TurtleSkin and CP 330: Unique protection, high dexterity

5. There are No Solutions for Random Injury Locations, No Glove has 100% Coverage

There are some tasks that commonly have injuries in random locations, these tasks would benefit from full coverage protection. A good example is loading or unloading bulk material that can contain cut or puncture threats. Household waste, machine tool chips, and hospital laundry are all bulk materials that can contain some nasty sharp objects. For this type of task consider the TurtleSkin Full Coverage Aramid Plus gloves with a cover glove to add grip and durability.

Full Coverage Aramid Plus - Full Coverage, Full Protection

6. Always Wear Full Coverage Safety Gloves in High Risk Situations

When your operators service power equipment you SHOULD use gloves to change cutting blades.  However on rotary cutters if there is a risk that the blade can snag on the glove you have to REMOVE the gloves from the PPE list for operation of these machines.  The very strong fibers that make gloves cut and puncture resistant can be a serious concern if the glove is pulled into power equipment.

 Use caution when using safety gloves in High Risk situations