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How to Make Rubber Gloves Useable
Ever try to do anything while wearing the large bulky rubber gloves, typically associated with hazmat response? It's close to impossible. There is just too much air space in the gloves to enable any kind of accuracy when trying to pick someone up or performing any kind of manipulative skills.
What I found from teaching Hospital WMD Hazmat First Responders across the country is that everyone struggles with this issue. We've all been orientated to wearing gloves, often times more than one layer, and usually different types of gloves.
It would not be uncommon to have the first layer be a nitrile glove with a butyl rubber glove on the outside. Here's where the problems start. But there is an easy fix that you can share with your hospital personnel, EMS responders and fellow firefighters.
So, how do you fix the problem?
Simply pull a latex style EMS glove over the outer glove.
What this does is draw the outer glove closer to your skin, tightening and minimizing any airspace. Things that you could not do before are not possible. And if you are attempting to do any pre-hospital care wearing the additional glove, you will find that you may be able to actually feel a pulse and perform other lifesaving actions that were impossible before reading this.
Stay safe and train often...
TCSS, CB
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Fireyladd - Retired Chief Sharp on
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Your the BESTEST! Busy! such a simple fix for a big problem. I like it.
question, do they make those suits and sell them at Wallyworld. Looks like just the ticket for changing diapers. LOL!
JK!
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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There are some corrosives that will turn latex or nitrile EMS gloves into goo as soon as the product touches the gloves. The exam glove idea is a good one, but it has some limitations.
We are working on changing our primary glove for unknowns to the One Glove by St. Gobain.
http://www.protectivesystems.saint-gobain.com/oneGloveProd.html
The guys that have tried them really like them. One Gloves are essentially five layers in one glove, but the layers are bonded together to provide better dexterity than the old "wear a lot of seperate gloves in layers" approach. One gloves protect from heat, flame, corrosives, toxins, and related chemical hazards without the need to know exactly what product is involved or having to select an outer glove based on a known primary hazard.
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Permalink Reply by Jason Brooks on
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Very true that they will disolve very quickly in some situations. But, this is a great idea that we are toying with also. The additional solution is to add Silver Shield gloves over the medical gloves. Not the best, but definitely better.
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We currently use three or four layers of gloves, depending on the chemical.
For known chemicals without flammability hazards, we use nitrile inner gloves, buty middle gloves attached to the suit, and an outer glove selected for max resistance to the primary product. The outer gloves may be butyl, nitrile, PVC, PVA, Viton, or even a kevlar knit or leather work glove.
For unknowns, we add a silver shield layer between the outer and attached butyl gloves.
Silver shields provide good protection, but the trade-off is degradation of dexterity.
For flammable products, we use an inner layer of kevlar knit, chemical outer gloves, and aluminized PBI or leather work gloves, depending on what we're dealing with.
The One Gloves are an expensive but nice way to take some of the guesswork and a lot of the dexterity problems out of hazmat gloves.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on
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Still "mop and glow" to me......
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Naaah, we're plumbers, not janitors.
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Still tend to glow in the dark........LOL
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Permalink Reply by Jake Fireman on
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What a great ...and SIMPLE solution. Paul there is nothing wrong with having that anti-freeze glow all day long, some women pay alot of money for that !!!!
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