You may have noticed that in the past few months and especially in the past few years that the term “nitrile gloves” appears more and more often, especially in the hospital, first aid, and laboratory environments. If you do not work in the National Health Service or some other medical practice, you may also have heard nitrile gloves recommended recently for self-protection and to stop the spread of the Covid-19 causing virus. In this article, we’ll attempt to concisely and informatively explain what sets nitrile gloves apart from the other glove types that are popular on the personal protective equipment market, such as latex gloves.
Latex gloves are currently an industry standard and they have been for years. This is because they are widespread, very fast to produce, and extremely cheap. In large bulk purchases, hospitals can buy wholesale masses of latex gloves for very decent prices and get them to their establishments as fast as possible. They offer reasonable protection and are generally okay for many applications.
However, latex gloves are by no means perfect, and they’ve been needing a major replacement for a long time now. Currently, we expect nitrile gloves to overtake them on the personal protective equipment market within a couple of years because many people are beginning to realize that nitrile gloves are simply the superior option. Why exactly are nitrile gloves so much better than latex gloves, even though they cost more?
Latex gloves have a tendency to rip or break spontaneously and are overall not the strongest type of glove on the market. Those gloves that are stronger are typically less convenient, take much longer to produce and in smaller volumes, and come with a much higher premium charge. Nitrile gloves are the one size fits all solution to that. They’re relatively easy to manufacture and offer far superior protection and resistance to latex gloves.
Not only are they strong and durable for long periods of time, but nitrile gloves also caused far fewer allergic reactions than latex gloves and many other kinds of personal protective equipment. Why is this? Nitrile gloves go through a much more complex and strenuous production technique that extracts and removes the allergic reaction causing rubber proteins from the rubber tree material the nitrile is often produced from. Many of the chemicals in nitrile gloves are also artificially and safely synthesized, making them reliable, strong, and tolerable by the skin. The natural materials commonly used in other gloves can frequently cause irritation, but nitrile gloves have a very low chance of provoking this.
Nitrile gloves are undeniably the superior option in terms of personal protective equipment and a fantastic choice for a huge range of medical and civilian environments. We deliver to all over the United Kingdom and provide an extensive range of different nitrile gloves, including our soft, reliable powder-free nitrile gloves, that can keep your hands protected without irritating them. You can browse our range here.