On another thread "Carried but not used" this prescient comment from Wildman800 was made:



This brings up an interesting point:
What type of gloves do you buy for your first-aid kit?

The usual choice is between latex, PVC, silicone and nitrile. Each has its advantages.

Latex examination gloves are the most common. They are cheap, if bought in bulk, and effective for short-term limited use in a controlled environment. They are also delicate, subject to degradation by many common chemicals and they self-destruct in storage.

My preference is for the disposable nitrile gloves, usually in blue or purple for some reason. These have several substantial advantages over the latex variety:

They are less likely to cause allergic reactions or a rash on people. Even people with moderate latex allergies can often get by with them. Even though some of them actually contain some amount of latex protein. YMMV.

They are more a little more resistant to tearing or puncture compared to latex.

Compared to latex gloves nitrile gloves are much more resistant to common chemicals. Many solvents, petroleum compounds and the petrolatum base used in many salves and ointments attack natural latex. In a disaster or crash site gasoline diesel, petroleum based agricultural chemicals can be expected cover virtually everything. Nitrile stands up to petroleum products.

They resist exposure to UV and sunlight far longer than latex. In the sunny south latex darkens and weakens after a short exposure to the noonday sun. Nitrile is largely immune to sunshine.

Nitrile stores much longer compared to latex. In part because it resists exposure to oxygen and ozone.

Disposable nitrile gloves are cheap and readily available.

Nitrile, PVC or silicone surgical gloves are all, IMHO, much better than latex. Silicone based gloves, marked as 100% latex free, are available but they are typically much more expensive than the alternatives. This additional cost may be justified if you, or the people you expect to treat, are extremely allergic to latex. PVC gloves are usually also 100% latex free and are much cheaper.

On the there hand high quality silicone surgical gloves sized properly to the wearer give the finest feel and greatest amount of manual dexterity available in a glove. Some surgeons claim that they actually are better than wearing no gloves because the light even pressure on their fingers increases their endurance. Much like support hose make the legs feel better by keeping the blood from pooling.

PVC gloves are typically used by food handling operations. They are fairly tough, cheap, chemical resistant and they hold up well in storage and in sunlight. Down side is that they don't stretch and have to be worn over-sized to get them on. The usual one-size-fits-all pair is pretty loose and once you sweat a little inside it can be like working from inside a water balloon as they slide around on the fingers annoyingly. Good gloves but being so loose they seem to snag more often.

Also some consideration might due to cases of hard use and more durable alternatives to disposable gloves. For extreme hard use pair of leather gloves worn over disposable gloves can vastly increase the resistance to abrasion and puncture of any gloves while maintaining barrier protection. If you need fine touch you can remove the bulky leather outers and maintain biological or chemical protection for yourself. Cheap but effective leather work gloves are often available for a bit more than a dollar a pair. Cheap enough that they can be seen as highly expendable, if not entirely disposable.

A larger medical kit might also benefit from inclusion of a couple of pairs of cuffed industrial PVC or nitrile gloves. These are much more resistant to chemicals, abuse, wear, and abrasion. They can also be cleaned and reused many times so, over the long-haul, after all the disposable gloves are gone you still have something to work with. They don't fit as tightly as the disposable gloves and they can consequently make fine work more difficult but they don't flop around like the worse of the over-sized disposable PVC gloves. Many have tapered fingers so you still have a good amount of feel and dexterity with the fingertips.

With time and effort most people can adapt to these. Remember that through the 40s fairly thick industrial gloves were used in surgery. They were all they had. Only later would the thin disposable gloves become available.

Also, as anyone who has used them in an emergency can tell you, you need to carry many pairs of disposable gloves. Even more if your using latex gloves. You are going to be going through many pairs. The typical first-aid kit only has one or two pairs. Better than nothing but if your going to carry disposable gloves think of a ten pairs as a minimum for anything more than a pocket-sized first-aid kit. More if possible.

IMHO a good selection for a large first-aid kit might be two-dozen disposable nitrile gloves, two pairs leather work gloves, two pairs cuffed industrial rubber gloves in PVC or nitrile.

Edited for spelling and syntax.

When I retired (a long time ago) I somehow had in my possession several boxes of Nitrile gloves, the really thick version (in blue). I keep them stored in a dark dry (semi) cool location, and they are still good. When I was an EMT, and before the department starting buying the thick gloves, we were told to double glove with the issue latex (as protection against AIDS or whatever. You ever try to put a pair of unpowdered latex gloves on over another pair? In my vehicle FAK I keep ziploc bags, each with a thick stack of 4x4's, a roll of whatever type of gauze I have, a roll of medical tape (with one corner of the end turned under for ease of use), and a pair of gloves. Easy to grab, and what I need for most injuries...

Note the thickness as well. Most Nitrile gloves are 4 mil, but you can get 5, 6 and 8 mil as well.

I tend to carry 6 mil Nitrile in my kits -- a bit heavier duty, but not so heavy duty you lose a lot of dexterity.

-john

I carry 5 pairs of vinyl gloves in my FAK. I don't know how long they will stay good but I'll be trying them out again when I get home.

Thanks for the info! Very useful. Is there a good source for small amounts of gloves?

I would be interested in a source for small quantities too.

Bucky

You can buy a couple of boxes of nitrile gloves at Costco for less than 20 bucks. I know that's the opposite of a small quantity but given what you'll pay for them buying them by the pair as "first aid supplies" you could buy them and give them away and still come out ahead.

For that matter, any large chain drug store carries boxes of latex, non-latex, powdered and unpowdered gloves, usually for about 10 bucks a box. Once you get a box, you might find other uses for them, like working with paint, oil changes, etc.

Still worth paying for.

John E

Some big-box hardware stores, I have seen them in both Lowe's and Home Depot, carry nitrile gloves in packages of 20 gloves under the Wells Lamont label.

Also many drugstores carry boxes of 100 nitrile gloves for about $6 last I looked. Unlike latex gloves, which degrade more rapidly once the package is opened, the nitrile gloves can be repackaged in zip-lock baggies and keep well. This allows you to keep a small stash in lots of places.

I've had pretty marginal luck at drug stores, but Rite Aid does carry a 50 pc. box for $7.99. Interestingly, I couldn't find the specific item on their web site, and their web site claims they have a different brand which I could not find in the store.

They also seem to have a two-for-one sale going on right now. I purchased two boxes, walked out of the store and noticed one box was charged full price, one was marked "**FREE**, Reg 1/7.99".

These are powder free, uni-sized and appear about 4 mil and comparable to others "large" size.

Another comparable is the 6 mil. 50 pc. box I get from Lab Safety Supply (LSS.com) which is $12.30 (qty. 1-9). These are powder free, but sized.

Another nice thing is LSS has a lot of other cool stuff like the N100 masks that I've found semi-difficult to find and another favorite of mine the Nitrile dipped, Kevlar gloves.

-john

I use blue nitriles, buy them by the box and repack them for my kits. And I use the left overs for all kinds of things- painting, certain cleaning chores, as a vapor barrier under leather work gloves at say, 30-40 degrees and it is wet out...

And they are great for Halloweeen. Two-by-two, hands of blue.