Mining’s best gloves hands down

ORANGE IS A POWERFUL BRIGHT COLOUR OFTEN USED TO INDICATE SAFETY HAZARDS. THAT’S WHY THE GLOVE COMPANY HAS DEVELOPED ITS HI-VIS ORANGE NITRILE DISPOSABLE GLOVES TO WITHSTAND THE RIGOURS OF THE MINING INDUSTRY.

Working in the mining sector is often handson with the potential for serious injury without proper safety equipment.

Moving parts also increase risks despite tight health and safety regulations. It is therefore essential to protect one of a worker’s most important assets – their hands.

The Glove Company designs and manufactures high-quality gloves and is one of the few manufacturers and distributors whose gloves have been independently tested and accredited by the National Association of Testing Authorities.

The company was also one of the first manufacturers to bring Hi-Vis Orange Nitrile Disposable Gloves to Australia. The TGC Orange Gloves have undergone an additional surface modification on the inside of the glove, allowing it to adapt to the user’s pH level, thus reducing the amount of excess sweating.

Hi-Vis Orange Nitrile Disposable Gloves are now available in Australia.

This means the gloves are comfortable in hot conditions, and the wearer is more likely to wear the glove and wear it for longer periods.

The Glove Company’s national sales manager Ben Kessey says the colour orange is synonymous with safety – the number-one priority for mine workers.

“Safety managers can easily tell if relevant staff that are meant to be wearing gloves are actually wearing them,” Kessey says. “Because the gloves are known for their high chemical and puncture resistance, a lot of organisations will tell their staff if they have to do a task involving a particular chemical or solvent that they need to be wearing the orange gloves.”

Nitrile disposable gloves can be used in almost any industry, with few to nil allergy issues and with certain styles about the same cost as latex gloves, there is no real downside.

Kessey says nitrile has the lowest allergy rate of any glove material on the market.

“A lot of employees out there have allergies to latex and they don’t have that with nitrile, so the gloves have an extremely low allergy rate,” Kessey says.

“Nitrile is a synthetic copolymer, formed through acrylonitrile and butadiene combining – this process makes the material stronger and more resistant to hazards than traditional latex.

“Because our TGC Nitrile disposable gloves also feature low-sweat technology it means that inside the gloves the hands don’t get quite as sweaty, so they are more comfortable and the glove will last longer. The inside of the glove is modified so it doesn’t react to the skin as much, meaning it doesn’t force the hand to sweat as much.”

The Glove Company produces the only Hi-Vis orange disposable glove certified for NATO use by the defence forces and aviation industry. The gloves feature a high-impact orange visual contrast surface, making it is easy to detect hazardous contaminants and prevent cross-contamination.

“One of the other benefits is when you are working with expensive machinery and you accidently drop the glove, it is easier to find if it is bright orange,” Kessey says. “You don’t want to be leaving a nitrile glove inside an expensive engine when they fire up.”

Kessey says the gloves are perfect for high-risk industries where it is easy to see if they have torn or fallen off, causing contamination to the environment, such as maintenance on machinery and inside of engines.

“Hand injuries make up a substantial amount of occupational health and safety claims from employees on mine sites. That is why there are so many variants of gloves on the market these days,” Kessey says.

“It is also very important to make sure that whatever glove an employee is using is for the right purpose as there is no one glove that will cover every task.”