FEATURE
GETTING GLOVE SPECIFICATION RIGHT
In this guide, Traffi explains the key factors Health & Safety professionals should consider when specifying hand protection, from assessing workplace risks and understanding EN388 ratings to improving wearer compliance and reducing the long-term costs of hand injuries.
When it comes to the supply of PPE for hundreds, or thousands of operatives at a time, it can easily become a tick-box exercise: a procurement decision rather than a safety-critical one. With hand injuries consistently ranking along the most frequently reported workplace injuries in the UK, it may be time for Health & Safety leaders to step back and review how they specify, select, and implement hand protection. The knock-on effects of hand injuries – operative downtime, insurance claims, rising premiums – carry significant cost for the business as a whole.
The reality is that specifying the right glove for a task requires a structured, evidence-based process. It starts with understanding the risks posed, interpreting the standards that refer to protection levels, and matching glove performance to the exact demands of specific tasks. Done well, it reduces injuries, lowers costs, and builds a safety culture where workers trust the PPE they’re given. Done poorly, it erodes trust, reduces compliance, and increases the very injuries it was meant to prevent.
This guide will walk you through the key considerations every safety manager, procurement lead, or health and safety professional should work through when specifying hand protection.
START WITH THE RISK ASSESSMENT
Accurate specification is impossible without first establishing the hazards workers face and assessing the severity of each hazard.
Mechanical hazards like cuts, abrasion, punctures and tears, are the most common in construction and infrastructure environments. Chemical hazards require a different set of considerations entirely due to the variety of substances handled across different industries, sites, and tasks. For these, the key questions are:
• What substance is present? • What is the concentration of the substance at hand? • How long are operatives exposed to the substance at a period of time?
• Which glove material will provide the best protection against said substance?
A task-by-task assessment is essential. Operatives in the same team could be facing different risks depending on what they are doing at any given moment. A common pitfall is choosing the highest possible level of cut protection without considering usability. Different tasks not only require varying levels of cut protection, but also dexterity and grip, amongst other features. A single
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