Tag: PPE

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Face Masks Nitrile Gloves PPE News

Has there been a PPE shortage in the UK, and why?

PPE Shortage UK

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has ruined the world in a myriad of ways. It has killed or hurt millions of lifes, made life troublesome for practically every human on the planet, forced us into repeated lockdowns, and put restrictions on everyday activities. But not only has it had a humanitarian impact, but the massively increased demand for medical protective clothing such as PPE has also resulted in overdrive manufacturing and chaotic distribution processes. In this article, we’ll examine whether there has actually been a PPE shortage in the UK, whether or not it is ongoing, and why it is there in the first place. 

When the coronavirus broke out in Wuhan, China late last year, the UK government didn’t pay a great deal of notice to it – much the same as many other countries in the world. As the virus arrived in the UK and began to spread rapidly, the government was overall fairly slow to respond to it, despite the science strongly suggesting that restrictions or lockdowns would have to be enforced. When the UK was finally put into a lockdown, it was quite a bit later than many other countries. As a result of this delay, the UK hadn’t stockpiled PPE resources fast enough, and as the infections mounted, a shortage of PPE set in.

The PPE shortage in the UK during the early and mid-stages of this year’s pandemic was primarily in the main items of personal protective equipment rather than gloves, which are generally very fast to manufacture and distribute in large quantities. However, the shortage did affect basically every item that needed to be produced, and many hospitals ran particularly low on personal protective equipment at the climax of the coronavirus’ spread.

Eventually, this shortage in PPE was dealt with, in part due to increased demand from hospitals, medical institutions and the government, but also due to demand from consumers for gloves, hand sanitizer, face masks and face shields, etc. These two factors pushed manufacturers to suddenly crank up their production rate and now there is far less of a PPE shortage than there was in the worst moments of the pandemic. 

As producers continue to supply more and more personal protective equipment and gloves, there is more than enough supply to go around. There is also still sufficient demand for these products so it’s unlikely that suppliers will decrease their batch sizes in the near future. This means that we’re successfully able to stock large amounts of nitrile gloves with fantastic distribution speeds and quality. If your practice or household needs any nitrile gloves, we’re ready and waiting for you to make a purchase.

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Nitrile Gloves PPE News

What gloves do hospitals use? Explained.

nitrile Gloves UK

Hospitals are intense environments where dangerous or precarious scenarios need to be attended to practically every hour of the day to keep patients alive and other patients safe! During these stressful situations, safety standards absolutely need to be maintained at all costs otherwise hospitals cannot be relied upon to keep people healthy and to operate on patients. For this reason, using protective gloves is crucial and a requirement in all medical practices, such as surgery and dental organisations. Gloves protect both the patient and the doctor from a range of harms, such as infection by dangerous microbes, contact with toxic or scolding chemicals, and dirt and grime.

So it naturally follows that all hospitals need reliable and strong gloves that can last a long time, especially during a lengthy surgery, where cleanliness, safety, patience and efficiency are all important factors. What gloves do hospitals use then to keep the doctors, nurses, patients and others safe? That is exactly what we’ll look at in this article. 

#1. Latex Gloves

Latex gloves have been commonplace in many practices since the eighties and even earlier. Nowadays, they are mass manufactured at astounding rates and sent to medical practices all across the globe. They are undeniably the most widely used, most popular and most cost effective type of globe for most normal practices, and doctors, nurses and other medical practitioners use them on a daily basis – often going through many pairs for every shift. 

Latex is very affordable and generally not too hard to manufacture, meaning they’re extremely readily available and shipped out to practically every hospital on the planet. Hospitals place huge orders for latex gloves and they’re basically the standard in protective gloves for most reasonable scenarios. However, they do not usually cope in stressful scenarios and are prone to breaking when stretched too much.

Therefore, hospitals must innovate with the kinds of gloves they purchase for a range of environments. 

#2. Nitrile gloves

Nitrile Gloves are the stronger, more dependable manufacturing type for protective medical gloves. Even though they are less popular and less widely used, they are still purchase in huge quantities everyday. If you hear an ambulance pass any day, it’s virtually a guarantee that they’ll be using nitrile gloves on board. That’s because nitrile gloves are the strongest and safest gloves for practical purposes and are a necessity for first aid situations.

Once in the hospital, the patient may be operated on, and nitrile gloves are used in the process by the nurses, doctors and surgeons. Hospitals place large orders for nitrile gloves just like they do for latex gloves.

Many people have latex allergies nowadays and there is an increasing intolerance towards latex materials. Therefore, nitrile gloves are a preferable alternative for those medical or chemical professionals who have allergic reactions to latex gloves. 

For these reasons, nitrile gloves uk are very popular in the medical and chemical industries and are used for almost all intensive scenarios, because they provide the most reliable and strongest protection – and don’t cause nasty allergic reactions. There is also a demand to move towards more renewable plastic glove manufacturing in the future.

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Nitrile Gloves PPE News

Difference Between Latex and Nitrile Gloves

Latex gloves and Nitrile gloves

Latex gloves and Nitrile gloves are both used in medical, chemical, and practical environments for a huge range of scenarios. They both provide protection against foreign objects, chemicals and fluids, and dangerous microbes, all of which can cause serious harm to a person if they come into contact with them. So, since both types of gloves are used in the real world, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each? What exactly is the difference between latex and nitrile gloves, and what would persuade a laboratory to select nitrile gloves instead of latex gloves? That is what we’ll explore in this article.

Latex Gloves

Latex gloves are immensely well known. Everyone has heard of them or even used them at some point in their life. If you went to school in the west any time in the past fifty years you probably wore latex gloves to do dissection in biology class. Latex gloves are extremely accessible, very cheap, and cost-effective both for small purchases and enormous orders, and relatively reliable for most applications.

In learning applications, they can be depended on and protect medical and surgical students from microbes, dirt and bodily fluids. In chemical applications, they stop harmful fluids, gases or solids from touching human skin and causing damage. Latex gloves are very versatile and used for a lot of different practices in the real world. 

While latex gloves are of course more widely available and cost-effective, and also versatile for a lot of scenarios, they’re not on the same level as nitrile gloves for professional scenarios where good protection is needed. Sure, latex gloves are relatively elastic and reliable, but there’s definitely a better option. These gloves can break under too much stress or stretching, and they’re also very thin – not as strong as nitrile gloves – so they’re prone to breaking more often. 

Nitrile gloves

On the other hand, you have nitrile gloves UK. Nitrile gloves are a standard manufacturing type of gloves for medical, chemical and first aid related functions and are generally used more often in real-world scenarios rather than teaching or minimally dangerous scenarios.

Nitrile gloves offer significantly increased protection in comparison to the thinner, weaker nitrile gloves. They have more elastic resistance and can be stretched much farther than latex gloves, which can often break in intense scenarios, which is less than ideal. Nitrile gloves are much tighter and fit better to various shapes and sizes of hand, so they’re great for long practices where loose material can be annoying, distracting or impractical – or even dangerous for a patient being operated on. 

Because nitrile gloves are much stronger than latex gloves and have far greater elastic resistance, it follows naturally that they are not quite so cost-effective. They’re generally less readily available. However, they are still extremely affordable in purchasing sizes both small and large and very easy to get hold of if you have contact with a good manufacturer or distributor – like us! 

Nitrile gloves are strong, reliable, and great for a wide range of professional scenarios: they have been proven time and time again in real-life practices. They’re cost-effective if you’re functioning in a medical or chemical organisation and definitely a safer and more responsible choice of protection. 

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Nitrile Gloves PPE News

What is Nitrile Gloves?

nitrile Gloves UK

In any medical, biological or chemical situation, or even in first aid, nitrile gloves are an absolutely essential component. They can be seen practically everywhere in professional scientific industries and are an extremely popular choice of the light globe for protecting the hands from microbes and fluids.

So, what exactly are nitrile gloves and why are they used so frequently? That’s what we’ll explore in this article.

Nitrile Gloves are made of elastic and synthetic rubber. This manufacturing composition allows them to be extremely durable and stretchable, so they can tightly fit any size of hand without breaking. Medical or scientific gloves made of other materials generally do not have these properties and are therefore impractical because they cannot be relied upon for immediate use. You have to purchase different sizes, and they are not as resistant for intense scenarios.

Nitrile gloves provide reliable, almost completely protection from a variety of invasive substances. These can include oils that can stain or sting the hand and human flesh, and which are flammable and by no means safe to be in contact with your hand. It also includes poisonous or toxic fluids which may be used in a laboratory or scientific environment where chemicals are being tested or produced. For this reason, nitrile gloves are also used on manufacturing lines because they protect workers from touching chemicals or microbes that are used in product manufacturing.

Furthermore, nitrile gloves protect humans against microbes, both harmless and extremely dangerous. In a medical environment, spreading any microbes about and contaminating patients or equipment can be extremely dangerous and does not fall under reasonable health and safety standards. Nitrile gloves block out microbes from the assets we use most often in lab or medical environments – our hands. 

Lastly, nitrile gloves are essential when dealing with first aid situations, and especially if you’re making any kind of contact with another human body. Not only will the nitrile gloves stop you from spreading any dangerous microbes into wounds and thereby causing possibly fatal infections, but they stop you from contaminating skin with any kinds of chemicals. Dropping any foreign liquid such as oil into a wound or on burnt skin can exacerbate the situation and defeat the purpose of having first aid on site.

Nitrile gloves uk are effective and affordable in bulk. Their design and manufacturing processes have been modified and improved over many years to produce gloves that fit tightly to any shape of hand and form a nearly unbreakable barrier against foreign objects, chemicals, fluids and microbes. They’re readily accessible from a huge range of locations and at very low prices, making them cost-effective both for small and large organisations, and minimal to enormous order sizes. 

Because they’re so reliable and affordable, nitrile gloves are almost undeniably the best choice for the average medical or chemical applications. However, for more intense or dangerous scenarios, we recommend purchasing stronger gloves so you can minimise the risk of harm. (This is not legal or medical advice.)