Gloves are a form of personal protective equipment.
They should therefore be provided free of charge, and must be suitable for their purpose. Only after all of these have been considered and implemented should gloves be considered. In practice gloves can be a very useful piece of safety equipment where work involves sharp objects, chemical or biological hazards, wet, cold or hot work. Unfortunately many gloves are inappropriate for their purpose, and some introduce new hazards. This briefing is intended to alert branches to some of the issues that they should consider where gloves are concerned.