Nitrile Gloves

One of the reasons I decided to take a break from epoxy work on the boat was that I ran out of nitrile gloves. Cleaning gorilla glue off my hands was bad enough. Epoxy is worse.

So why didn't I use gloves when working with glue? Funny thing that. I wasn't just working with glue, I was driving a lot of screws at the same time. The first and last time I tried to drive a screw wearing gloves, the glove rapped around the screw and ripped right off my hand. Should have seen that one coming.

Disposable gloves are great for those messy home projects. I've used them from everything to auto maintenance to septic system repair. For the septic system, I wore a pair of cheap leather work gloves over the nitrile gloves to prevent punctures. Believe me, working on old smelly septic systems are bad enough without cutting your hands in the middle of it. When done, the nitrile gloves and the leather ones got thrown away.

Latex used to be used everywhere in the medical field, but people developed allergies. My lovely wife spent over thirty years as a medical lab technician and is now sensitive to latex. We even have to be careful what clothes she buys. Latex is used in everything from shirts to underwear.

The switch over from latex to other materials was slow, as latex is a lot less expensive. There used to be a latex glove factory near me. Most of the workers developed chronic illnesses. The place shut down and I think it was largely to avoid lawsuits.

My next trip into town I'm picking up a box of the good disposable gloves. I do have a few pairs in my medical kits, but I know better than to raid them. Stuff just doesn't get replaced like it should. If I open a medical kit looking for gloves they'd better be there. Medical use is a lot more serious than boat building.

-Sixbears