Does the Glove Fit?

I reached out to Al West, North East Sales Manager at Simoniz USA, Inc. (http://www.simoniz.com/) for additional PPE information.


Al writes - Thanks for asking me to research the answer to your blog readers question ‘Are there differences between one type of glove and another in terms of safety when handling chemicals?’.


I spoke with our lab tech's and our plant/safety manager. They told me, unfortunately there are thousands of types of material for chemical protection in gloves, there are specific materials designed to handle alkaline and different materials designed for acids. There is also material that handles both - these would be considered the highest quality glove.


They said the most important factor in protection is the "Rate of Permeation". Typical gloves that we buy at CVS or Home Depot etc. can be as low as an hour or two. This presents the biggest risk in safety as people could be using gloves that may be keeping their hands clean yet not truly giving any protection.


The gloves we use have a rate of permeation at around Two Weeks, that's big. We buy "Ansell" gloves model "Sol-Knit Nitrile Glove". We buy these from Graingers. Hey every Car Wash guy knows Graingers (http://www.graingers.com/) they are a great source for so many things.


Ansell also has excellent disposable gloves that would give excellent protection to our industry - models "Touch N Tuff" and "Micro Touch EP". You can check out their website http://www.ansellpro.com/.

Thanks Al I appreciate your team’s expert advice.

Dismemberment at a Car Wash!

At a car wash in mid-west a machine called an industrial centrifuge extractor was being used to dry towels. An employee had his arm pulled from his torso when he reached into the extractor while the internal drum was still spinning. As a result of an inspection conducted after the accident three citations were issued by the Secretary of State. One issue before the Commission alleged that there was a willful violation of an OSHA machine guarding standard. The Secretary imposed a penalty of $28,000 for the violation. So not only do we have a catastrophic injury to an employee but in addition to the insurance payout the wash incurred the following costs; loss of business, loss of a valued employee, cost to retrain a new employee, personnel cost to process the paperwork, loss of productivity due to moral and the $28,000 penalty. In this particular case safeguards were circumvented and proper training was absent.

Another case in point, an employee took a short cut through the tunnel. As he was exiting, the intake vent on the blower sucked the jacket he was carrying up in to the machinery tearing his arm from his shoulder. Although there was a guard it was inadequately designed to prevent this terrible incident.

In both of these cases the outcome was a successful limb reattachment, however, they would never have the full use. With the proper training both incidents could have been avoided altogether. It is imperative that all employees understand the dangers associated with car wash machinery. Repetitive training for both new and existing employees is an absolute if you are to maintain a safe environment.

Train....Train....Train!