[Histonet] Re: Gloves

[Robert Richmond]

Janet Bonner notes:

>We use Aloe Touch Nitrile gloves, powder-free from Medline (MDS195084 for small size)  www.medline.com.        (1-800 - medline) These gloves are not stiff, they fit the hand 'like a glove' .  They say on the box "not intended to be used as a chemical barrier", but they do a great job when exposed to Histology chemicals.<<

Not familiar with this product, but with nitrile rubber gloves brand
name is important, as the quality of nitrile rubber gloves worsens.
When they first came out and were made in the USA, I could make a pair
last for two weeks of grossing. As manufacture moved to the
latex-producing countries, nitrile rubber (if that's what they
actually are) gloves became no better than latex. At present I use two
pairs of gloves when I gross.

There's a little-known product called "chemotherapy gloves" - thick
blue latex. I filched a box of these and use them - they last for
several days. Obviously re-using gloves offsets the high initial cost
of purchase, but that's not good MBA thinking.

OSHA says not to handle formaldehyde (and I suppose xylene) with latex
gloves, but has not specified an alternative.

It's disgraceful how little the powers that be care about the hands of
pathologists and histotechnologists. You can bet that if it were
nurses who had this problem, it'd get solved in a hurry.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN