With proper employee training, laboratory settings are safe and controlled environments. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t have any hazards. Laboratories are full of safety rules due to these experimentation dangers, and one such regulation is that people must wear gloves. Having gloves on in the lab is critical to keeping you and your experiments safe. Whether you’re handling toxic materials or avoiding burns, there are many lab operations you should wear gloves for. We’ll cover some here.

Handling Materials

The main reason to wear gloves in a laboratory setting is to protect your hands while working with various materials. Laboratory gloves come in different thicknesses and substances, and the pair you need will depend on the material you’re working with. Wearing gloves helps provide a layer of protection between your skin and any corrosive or generally hazardous substances you may come into contact with while in the lab.

Avoiding Contamination

On the other hand, it’s also crucial to wear gloves when working with biological or unstable specimens. Many experiments require such a high level of control that human skin and oils could potentially contaminate things. In such cases, gloves work both ways in the lab; they keep both the scientist and the experiment safe.

Working With Tools and Different Conditions

You will also need different kinds of gloves depending on the tools and conditions you face. For instance, using a laboratory heating mantle would require thermally protective gloves for hot conditions. Another example would be using rubber gloves for experiments that may involve electrical hazards. Additionally, any time you use tools or materials that you have heated or chilled to an extreme degree, protective gloves will be necessary.

Always remember these lab operations that you should wear gloves for when working in the laboratory. Wearing gloves helps protect your hands from chemical and normal burns, scars, and stains. So, be conscious of when to wear gloves in the lab. This way, you can maintain your health and the safety of your laboratory and experiments.