Let’s now look at each one of the different types of PPE. First, hand and arm protection. A lot of the work we do is with our hands and so it’s very important to protect our hands, wrists and the lower part of the arm. Gloves are usually the primary means of protecting the hands, but you also need to protect the wrists and forearms with long-sleeved gowns or arm protectors.

Glove selection

Gloves come in a variety of different sizes, styles, colors and material. The nature of the hazard and the operation to be performed is the deciding factor in selection of glove type to be used. Are they going to be used for patient care, for environmental services, for handling biological material, cold, hot, chemicals, or other materials? Certain gloves for certain situations are reusable and can be used again and again if you decontaminate them and are very durable. For example, thick rubber gloves for washing glassware can be used many times. Then there are special purpose gloves. For example, cut resistant if you’re working with knives or other sharp objects. Puncture resistant if you are working with needles. What, if you’re working with hot or cold objects? Gloves are made to protect your hands from a variety of hazards, but you must select the correct type for the situation and hazard. What do you need that glove to do?
Right now, I would like you to watch this short animated video on skin exposure, to remind yourselves why you would need to wear gloves to protect your hands from potential exposure from pathogens, chemicals or other hazards in your environment. Don’t be alarmed. There’s no audio with this video. It’s just an animation.

Since this is a biosafety course, we will focus on gloves helping to protect you from biological exposure. Gloves that protect from biological exposure, are made of different types of plastics – vinyl, latex, nitrile, butyl and several others. All protect from biological hazards, but have different permeability to chemicals. So, make sure you choose the right glove material for mixed biological and chemical hazards. Each glove type has a different feel and durability.

Glove use

Before use, inspect your gloves for signs of wear, cracks, scrapes, laceration thinning or discoloration. Gloves don’t last forever, particularly if they’re left out in the hot environments or have been exposed to sunlight. Check the expiry date on the box. Do you want to wear one or two pairs of gloves? In some circumstances, two pairs of gloves are better. They can be different types of gloves, different types of material, different colors, for different purposes. Reusable or disposable? Most of the gloves we use in the laboratory are single use and they should be disposed of immediately after use because they are thin and most likely contaminated. Donning includes removal of all jewelry from your fingers and wrists.

Do’s and don’ts of glove use. It is always a good idea to work from clean to dirty, as much as possible so that you don’t go back and contaminate clean materials. Also, limit the opportunities for touch contamination. That means protecting yourself, others and the environment from being contaminated from those surfaces that have the contamination on them. Don’t touch your face or adjust your PPE with contaminated gloves. Try to remember when the gloves have been used with pathogens and then consider them contaminated. They should then be disposed of before they touch anything else. Don’t touch environmental surfaces except as necessary during patient care and change gloves frequently if torn or heavily soiled.

It is important to know how to remove gloves properly so that you’re not spreading contamination or contaminating yourself. What I will show you here is one process that the CDC recommends, but it’s not the only way. The procedure is to grasp one glove near the top and peel it away from the hand turning the glove inside out and rolling it into a ball, holding it in the opposite gloved hand. Next, slide your ungloved finger underneath the cuff of the remaining glove and peel off the glove turning it inside out. This will create a bag which contains the other glove. Then discard the two gloves into a biomedical waste container. Now watch this video that will show you how.
If you follow that procedure, each and every time you’ll have less potential contamination on your body or anywhere else.

Arm protection

Since your hand and wrist is attached to your arm, we also must look at arm protection as well. This may also be part of the body protection that we will discuss next. However, for now let us just look at the two most common arm protection pieces of equipment. These are the long-sleeved gown and plastic arm protector.
The most common arm protection is the one that comes with your gown or coveralls. These have long sleeves with knit cuffs that extend down to your wrists. The knit cuffs should be covered with the gloves you put on to ensure there is no bare skin exposed. Additionally, you can wear, plastic disposable sleeve covers on top of the long sleeves already provided to give you a layer of protection that can easily be removed and disposed of.
So in summary, make sure to select your glove based upon use and hazard; select the correct type of plastic for the glove type based upon use and chemical permeability; inspect your gloves before use and remove all jewelry from your hands; remove single-use gloves immediately after use via an approved method and dispose of them. Be sure your arms are protected as well.

In part 3 or this lesson we will look further into body and foot protection.