I went to update my first aid kit and found that all the latex gloves had disintegrated. Which glove material (latex, vinyl, nitrile) is better for storage in higher temperatures?

Stick with Nitrile either way. To risk coming across someone with alergic reactions to vinyl or latex is not worth the saved cash on replacing them.

Go with nitrile.

Is it possible you could come across someone allergic to all three? Is there any other alternative materials? I hadn't heard of Vinyl gloves til I saw this thread.

I've never heard of an allergy to nitrile. I suppose it's plausible but hard to imagine.

I echo the suggestion to go with nitrile. Less chance of allergic reaction and I love the safety of their "rip with a pin prick" feature.

Most first-aid kits seem to come with one, sometime two, pairs of gloves. Given their delicacy two pairs might hold up for a few minutes. Hard use, the likelihood a few are damaged in storage, the need to change gloves between patents and when switching between contaminated and not contaminated surfaces, would seem to say even a small kit needs a lot more gloves. Two or three pairs isn't near enough. Six pairs is better but a quick look at accident scenes, even with just one or two people injured, often shows dozens of gloves discarded and there are clearly limits on how may pairs a small kit might hold.

I've entertained the thought that some sort of heavier glove, an industrial model, might serve. Early surgical gloves were fairly thick, durable, and were commonly reused. Surgeons didn't like them due to some loss of dexterity. If your bent is toward preparedness for long term and post-apocalyptic world a huge supply of disposable gloves, or a shorter supply of heavy-duty reusable gloves would seem to be your options. That assumes you absolutely require gloves.

I also have considered going without. The actual benefits of safety in the field provided by gloves have never been entirely clear to me. In a clean and well controlled environment working on a minor wound gloves likely help protect both parties. In the woods, rolling in the mud, large bloody wounds, and mass casualty sites that resemble an ill kept abattoir the advantage is much less clear.

All of the gloves will deteriorate with age, as well as exposure to heat and light, including nitrile gloves.

Sue

To your point Art, I was once the first responder at an accident where two bikers were smashed up by a dump truck. After the paramedics arrived and took over, I was cleaning up and noticed a fresh cut on my hand. I had no recollection of when or how it happened. I only knew that it happened on the scene. I wore 2 pairs of latex gloves, changing the outter pair, went through several pairs, and didn't notice the cut until I was done. That was the moment I realized I no longer had the stomache to be an EMT. (I felt a little better knowing my hepatitis and tetanus shots were up to date.)

Sue's right. There are no guarantees. I might have been better off with a thicker outter pair of gloves. Rubber dish/chemical gloves maybe?

Firemen have long used tough leather gloves and I have seen a few EMTs wearing tough over-gloves, looked like poly knit work gloves, over the thinner rubber ones.

Gloves and glasses are common but offer only limited protection. I've seen an EMT pretty much hosed with blood from a punctured artery. It has always amazed me how blood spreads out and covers everything. How slippery it is and then how sticky and tenacious it gets.

Rubber dish gloves offer decent protection against scrapes, but there's a loss of fine dexterity. Try putting on a bandaid while wearing them.

I can buy smaller packs (6-10 pairs) of disposable gloves and rotate them out on a 6 month basis. Use the old one for cleaning the cat's litter box.

In the old days, before 1977or so, gloves were never used and were not part of any FA protocol. Then along came HIV/AIDS and the routine use of gloves.

I grinned yesterday, donating blood, when the technician put of gloves just to take a tiny drop to check my hematocrit. Never happened back way back when.

Now I just buy disposable gloves by the box at Costco (a big box store, logically enough) and keep several pairs in my FAKs. They are also handy in various dirty chores - handling insecticides, casting fossils with plaster, cleaning engines, you name it.

Be sure you learn the proper way to divest yourself of these gloves, so that you do not contaminate yourself.

With the diseases around these days (AIDS, HIV, MERSA, etc), it seems it would be better to wear the gloves than to go bare-handed. If the gloves protect you four out of five times, you're still ahead. With luck, the fifth time the patient is 'clean'. With luck.

Sue

I think nitrile will best, I read some where about this. If you ordered these please share how will your experience with this.

The woven gloves were probably for sharps protection; something like: http://www2.dupont.com/Personal_Protection/en_US/products/kevlar/cut_products.html

Just a side note if your gonna be doing anything with petro based things If i recall they eat latex so stick with nitrile.

Would also use nitrile gloves. If you are using the gloves for anything other than first aid the nitrile gloves hold up better. I work as a machinist and when I am using gloves at work the latex gloves will disintegrate quickly upon contact with any kind of solvent or petroleum based chemicals. Nitrile gloves will usually last for at least a few hours, usually toss them when the the parts I am handling are cleaner than the gloves. But I have also used the same gloves all day, the latex gloves will not hold up that well.