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Safety gloves are often viewed as a disposable commodity on industrial worksites, but manufacturers like Cestusline, based in Portland, Oregon, have spent the past three decades honing and perfecting the intelligent design details that keep workers’ hands safe.   In the past, little beyond engineering and line of fire training was introduced to keep workers’ hands whole.  Today’s safety leaders recognize the detrimental challenges of fatigue, sickness, and distraction to today’s workforce.  PPE remains the last line of defense in mitigating injuries on jobsites, and the evolution of gloves has gone unnoticed in many sectors.  Trends in hand protection over the past five years include an explosion of engineered fibers that make today’s gloves virtually impenetrable to cuts, but high cut resistance isn’t the only development in hand safety that may have flown under the radar.

The Case for Impact Gloves

Beyond cut protection, today’s safety professionals in the heaviest industries have refocused their attention on the highest incidence hand injury risk: impact injuries.  These pinch point, caught-between, and struck-by incidents make up the majority of recordable injuries on industrial jobsites and cost companies thousands.

Impact Glove Evolution

Traditionally, oil and gas companies led the world in developing compulsory policies that match PPE that is fit for purpose to known hazards.  Although the oil titans spearheaded the development of impact gloves, these gloves are functioning in many other industries as a reliable way to reduce the severity of hand injuries onsite.  Companies that integrate impact protection into their hand safety programs often enjoy over a 60% reduction in hand injuries.  Impact gloves have continued to evolve over the past decade, with innovations in performance and ergonomics.  What began simply as bulky padding added to the knuckles now includes flexible impact systems that protect hands from wrist to tips.

Impact Glove Expectations

Despite best intentions, employees can have unrealistic expectations on the role of impact gloves onto a jobsite.  Frank discussions on the gloves protective features and benefits should be balanced with clear instructions on impact glove care, lifespan, and performance expectations.  For example, employees new to impact gloves may be tempted to test the impact glove’s protective limits by engaging in risky behaviors.  Clear expectations on how impact gloves reduce the severity of injuries should be shared with all team members to head off confusion.

What to Look For in Impact Gloves

In the Americas, impact gloves are becoming a norm on jobsites, but a vast sea of options can make it confusing to choose the correct level of protection for the task at hand.  When integrating impact protection onto a site, safety managers should avoid choosing a glove manufacturer on price, color, or catalog alone.  Unlike cut resistant gloves, there is a large disparity over fit and comfort that can only be tested by donning the gloves.  Likewise, lifespans can vary greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer.  Often, you get what you pay for.

Lab Proof

If the gloves have been tested to EN standards, there is a standardized impact test that is performed by independent, third-party laboratories.  EN 13594 measures the glove’s ability to disperse energy from an impact.  While it doesn’t accurately replicate every situation, it can separate fashionable from functional gloves.

High Incidence Area Coverage

Often mistaken as an aesthetic feature, impact protection panels need to be functional.  High frequency areas of injury should be completely covered to effectively mitigate injuries.  Fingertips are often the site of most hand injuries since they are often the closest to the hazard.

Cuts in All the Right Places

Look at the segmentation style of the impact protection while the hand is flexed as well as when it is at rest.  Some segmentation styles have major protection gaps when the hands are flexed or grasping.  Overall stiffness when flexing can create hand fatigue that can lead to loss of grip control.  Materials that look the same can vary greatly in their flexibility.  Functional impact gloves should mirror your fingers’ natural bends.

Real Life Cost Savings

While safety doesn’t make us money, it saves us the money we make.  Integrating impact gloves onto a site can give your accounting department sticker shock if they are short-sighted.  How do you afford safety?  Take time to collect data on your current PPE costs.  Often high performance PPE saves companies money over the long run, due to reduced shipping fees for fewer products; less administrative time to distribute; and a reduction wasted wages for employees replacing PPE.  Don’t forget to Add the potential savings for direct and indirect costs associated with injuries that will no longer happen to get a cumulative projection on cost performance.  Improving safety can make an impact.

AUTHOR: Jennifer Choi is Vice-President of Operations at Cestusline Inc., an Oregon glove manufacturer committed to raising the threshold in industrial hand protection.  Cestusline specializes in light to heavy impact gloves to accommodate any budget or task.