Disposable Gloves for the Chemically Sensitive

I really depend on disposable gloves. With these gloves, I can do the dishes, prepare meals, use the computer, and do other work around the house. Without the gloves, I would be constantly washing my hands to remove chemical residues.

Using disposable gloves can be a pretty expensive habit and I am trying to cut back. You can reuse them as much as you want until they get chemicals on them. Using disposable gloves is helpful to keep toxic chemicals from spreading around the house. If you get chemicals on them, you can just throw the gloves away, and the chemicals cannot spread from your gloves to other things you touch.

Sometimes I wear these gloves out in public when I go shopping. However, people may think you have some contagious disease if you wear nitrile gloves because people typically see such gloves in the health care profession. Therefore, sometimes I wear other gloves over the nitrile gloves. I wear some mechanics gloves over mine but you could also wear cotton, leather or other gloves--perhaps washable gloves.

I also use disposable gloves to protect things that I want to keep chemical-free. If you are chemically sensitive to the touch, you know that sometimes you have chemicals on your hands and do not even know it. When this is the case, we spread the chemicals to everything we touch. Therefore, I use gloves when I use my computer because it is critical that I keep my computer chemical-free. I also have used gloves to keep other things chemical-free, such as books, cell phones, notebooks, and pens.

To prevent contamination of clean gloves, I wash my hands then put clean plastic gloves on my hands. Then I tear open the box of gloves and take out a bunch of gloves from the box and put them on a plate that is straight out of the dishwasher. I find that this works much easier than pulling the gloves out of the box through the hole at the front.

I use a combination of two different types of gloves: (1) high-density polyethylene (hereinafter “plastic gloves”); and (2) nitrile gloves. If you are very chemically sensitive to the touch, you know that many chemicals will go through a single plastic glove. Therefore, to obtain additional protection, it is necessary to wear multiple layers of gloves. On each hand, I wear five layers of the plastic gloves followed by one nitrile glove. Besides providing additional protection from chemicals, the nitrile gloves provide a much better grip than the plastic gloves.

Polyethylene gloves. I buy a brand called “Clean Ones” at Costco stores. I have also seen them for sale at Amazon.com. I have not had problems with these gloves having chemical residues on them. The last time I purchased these gloves, they cost about $12 for 2000 gloves (4 packs of 500). Therefore, the gloves cost about 1/2 of a penny each.

Shop for polyethylene gloves at Amazon.com

 

I will rank the PE gloves I have used on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 being the best and 10 being the most toxic).

 

•Clean Ones: 1

•Daily Chef: 1-2

•Member's Mark: 4-5

•Choice Disposable Gloves: 7

 

Nitrile gloves. I buy the Kirkland brand from Costco, but the gloves are manufactured by Kimberly-Clark. The Kirkland nitrile gloves are grey, but Kimberly Clark sells gloves of different colors through different distribution channels. I have only tried the grey ones and they have not caused problems for me as far as chemical sensitivity. The last time I purchased these gloves I think they cost $17-$20 for 400 (2 packs of 200). If they cost $20, that would amount to five cents per glove.

Shop Kimberly-Clark nitrile gloves at Amazon.com

 

Nitrile gloves are generally good for chemical protection.[1][2] Sometimes it is helpful to wear double gloves. (Id.) One thing I found it interesting from the sites listed below is that certain types of gloves protect against certain solvents much better than others. (See Id.) If you know what chemical you are dealing with, you might try a glove that is especially effective at blocking that chemical. 

 

The other issue I have faced is that I cannot use some nitrile gloves because they cause me symptoms. I will rank the gloves I have used on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 being the best and 10 being the most toxic).

 

•Ammex black nitrile: 1
•Infi-touch white (or beige?) cleanroom gloves: 1
•Infi-touch blue: 1 or 2 (the ones I purchased have a thickness of 6 mil, which is about twice as thick as most other nitrile gloves I have tried. The thickness makes it so less chemicals get through but they are also more expensive and can be a little harder to get on and off.)
•Curad: 3
•Kimberly Clark (now Halyard): 4 (These used to be a 1 before Halyard bought Kimberly Clark. I have tried purple, lavender, and grey.)
•Acceletrator-free gloves from Hourglass Intl.: 4
•Microflex: 5
•Relion: 10

I usually put on five polyethylene "Clean Ones" or "Daily Chef" gloves (from Sam's club) under the nitrile gloves. The polyethylene gloves give me additional thickness at a fraction of the cost of the nitrile gloves. I use nitrile gloves on top for grip and to lessen the bulk of the polyethylene gloves. I also tried Choice PE gloves but they seem to have more chemicals that give me symptoms.

 

Non-disposable gloves: If you need some really thick gloves to keep free of chemicals, Bluettes have worked well for my dad and I. We cut a few inches off the bottom so that they are easier to get on and off. We put them through the washing machine when we first buy them to remove chemicals from them. We also put them through the washing machine if they get chemicals on them.

Shop for Bluettes gloves at Amazon.com

 

[1] http://amo-csd.lbl.gov/downloads/Chemical%20Resistance%20of%20Gloves.pdf

[2] http://www.aps.anl.gov/Safety_and_Training/User_Safety/gloveselection.html