Why safety gloves alone are not enough to prevent hand injuries

Your company health and safety rules state that everyone must wear safety gloves when using cutting tools. Your employees understand the dangers of non-compliance and always follow the rules to the letter.

That must mean zero chance of anyone sustaining a hand injury in your workplace – right?

Wrong!

Safety gloves alone are not sufficient to protect against hand injuries.

Why is this? Well, hand injuries don’t just happen when cutting materials or handling sharp objects. What’s more, safety gloves alone won’t stop an employee cutting another part of their body – or someone else’s – in the event of an accident.

Buying safety gloves for your team is important, but it isn’t all you should be doing to protect your employees against hand or cut injuries.

Hand injuries in the workplace

Hand injuries in the workplace are still relatively common. From cuts and abrasions to broken bones, strains, sprains and burns, they still make up a large proportion of at-work injuries reported in the UK each year.

The role of safety gloves

Wearing safety gloves can help to prevent hand injuries, providing:

• They are the right type for the hazard
• They are well-fitting
• They are of good quality AND
• They are properly maintained

A good pair of cut-resistant safety gloves will prevent accidental cuts and abrasions to fingers and hands, providing they are of the correct cut resistance rating.

However, they are not a complete safety solution. Although they lower the risk of a cut injury, they are not a substitute for common sense, proper training or the right tools and equipment.

It is also important to remember that cut-resistant safety gloves may not protect the hands against other risk factors for injury, including exposure to harsh chemicals and other skin irritants.

Preventing cut injuries

Wearing protective gloves can help to prevent someone cutting their hands, fingers or thumbs when they are using cutting tools or handling sharp materials at work.

But cut injuries don’t only happen to those parts of the body.

Exposed blades, a lack of care, and incorrect cutting technique – such as cutting towards the body – can cause cutting injuries to other areas such as the legs, feet or torso in the event of the knife or other tool slipping.

Find out how to cut safely in our free guide

In rare cases, these factors can also endanger other workers in the vicinity. Although less common, it does sometimes happen that someone loses control of a box cutter or utility knife and accidentally cuts someone or something next to or behind them.

A safer safety knife

So, aside from ensuring their workers wear safety gloves and promoting the importance of correct cutting technique, what else can health and safety managers do to prevent cut injuries at work?

Invest in finger-friendly blade technology

At iSB Group, we are an approved stockist of Slice® safety knives.

The company’s award-winning box cutters and utility knives have finger-friendly ceramic blades that cut with their hardness rather than their sharpness, making them significantly safer than traditional steel blades. Find out more about the science behind the Slice® blade.

Many Slice® knives come with a smart mechanism that pulls the blade back into its housing when it loses contact with a material – even if the user’s finger is still on the slider – thereby eliminating the possibility of the user or anyone else being cut by an exposed blade.

As an additional safety feature, their handles are ergonomically designed to reduce strain on the hand and wrist that – over time – could lead to the onset of painful musculoskeletal conditions.

View our top picks from the Slice® range here, or contact us to order a sample via sales@isb-group.com.