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It is crucial for industry owners to know about the cut resistant glove ratings to be able to select the ideal glove for their workers.
Our hands are constantly exposed to potential hazards in daily life, both at work and at home
For this reason, hand injuries very common not only at work.
Researchers estimated approximately 2.6 million patients visited US emergency departments annually for hand and wrist injuries between 2009 and 2018
Approximately 100,000 case are considered LTI cases.
This makes it important not only to wear gloves while working, but also to select the proper gloves according to your activity.
Cutting resistant gloves are designed and recommended for this purpose.
What are the cutting resistant gloves
Cut-resistant gloves are a type of personal protective equipment (PPE)
designed to minimize the risk of cuts and lacerations to your hands from sharp objects
American National Standards Institute (ANSI) issued the ANSI/ISEA 105-2016 standard for hand protection.
In which they state that gloves should be classified according to their resulting performance when tested.
Another standard was classifying the same in Europe . This is EN 388
The both standards differ in the number of classes and the methods of testing, we will try to explain some about these differences.
The Importance of Cut-Resistant Gloves
As we just mentioned, every body is exposed to hand injuries. No matter what your business is, you are using your hands.
There are some specific industries in which the worker is facing this type of injuries more than others, like kitchen activities and food industry.
Inside kitchens, everybody is using knives and can easily be injured.
But when you think about any other industry, you will find that hand injuries can still happen anywhere and anytime.
When safety organizations try to control any risk, they are evaluating this risk in a process called risk assessment.
In which we need to ask 2 main questions:
First is: who might be harmed and how? (the severity of hazard)
The other question is how often can this harm occur. (the likelihood of occurrence)
So, it is very clear now that a common hazard like sharp edges need to be controlled in a proper way, as it is very likely to cause harm to hands.
And in order to make the choice of the proper hand protection more effective, it was crucial to design the protective means to withstand a variety of danger levels.
Here comes the importance of cut resistant glove ratings .
Cut-Resistant Glove ratings
In industry, we can measure the cut resistance for gloves in many scales.
ANSI/ISEA 105-2016 standard is measuring it on a scale of either A1-A9
While, EN388:2016 is measuring it from 0-to-5 or A-F.
ANSI is testing these gloves, the rating depends on the weight (in grams) needed to cut the glove
The ratings in ANSI are having the ranks from A1 (can withstand 200 g) to A9 (can withstand to 6000g)
While EN388 is measuring the cut resistance level in (Newtons)
Their method counts how many times a rotating blade (5 Newtons) can pass over a swatch of the glove.
Gloves can then be rated from Lvl 1 (1.2 passes) to lvl 5 (20 passes)
Depending on the nature of your activity, your safety team shall be able to select the most proper glove that protects your hands from being cut.
We will cover the difference between each testing method in details in other posts.
Proper gloves for each work
Depending on your activity, you can select the most proper glove that fits you and will help you working safely without restrictions.
Here are some examples for common works and the best cut-resistant gloves for each:
For kitchen works: where you are using knives constantly, it is better to check this ANSI A4 or this ANSI A5 glove.
Wood working : Where using your power tools can cause you severe hand injuries, ANSI A6 will be more safe for you to use.
Even there are some recommendations to use ANSI A7 also for the same activities.
Construction activities: Here also your hands are in danger if contacted any sharp edges,
you can use ANSI A5 – ANSI A6 – ANSI A7 gloves depending on what is comfortable for your hands.
Metal cutting activity: ANSI A7 or ANSI A8 Cut-resistant gloves shield metalworkers from painful cuts from sheet metal, wires, and sharp edges.
Glass handlers : ANSI A6 – ANSI A7 Cut-resistant gloves protect glass handlers from getting sliced by sharp glass shards
If you are working in one of these works, so this choice might be good for your hand’s safety.
Remember that our selection is done according to the correct cut resistant glove ratings .
After covering the cut resistant glove ratings, we will complete our safety tips for this topic and others.
Do not forget to read also some other food safety posts from here
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