Hand Protection: Vital for a Safe Workplace

Hand Protection: Vital for a Safe Workplace

Hand Injuries At Work Are Preventable

ISEA’s Hand Impact Standards

  • The International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) released a new hand protection standard to improve the impact performance of industrial gloves: ANSI/ISEA 138-2019, American National Standard for Performance and Classification for Impact Resistant Hand Protection.
  • The new standard builds upon the widely used ANSI/ISEA 105-2016, American National Standard for Hand Protection Classification.
  • ANSI/ISEA 138 is the first standard to address the risk of impact injuries in North America.

Hand Impacts, Cuts & Punctures Are Preventable

  • Of the 286,150 nonfatal occupational injuries to upper extremities in 2017 involving days away from work in private industry, 121,860 involved hands, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
  • According to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), 70.9 percent of hand and arm injuries could have been prevented with personal protective equipment, specifically safety gloves.
  • The hand is the second most common body part injured in the workplace, reported Industrial Safety & Hygiene News.

What Hand Protection Leaders Are Saying

“ISEA members have been leaders in developing products to reduce hand injuries, and continue to create products to protect workers’ hands from impacts, cuts and abrasions.” — Jill Clements, Aramids Account Manager, Cut & Thermal Protection, Safety & Construction at DuPont Specialty Products Division and chair of the ISEA Hand Protection Group

ISEA’s standard “will enable safety professionals to make better-informed decisions about glove selection, ultimately reducing the number of injuries to a worker’s important asset—the hand.” — Rodney Taylor, Global Sales and Marketing Manager, Industrial PPE for D3O and Chair of ISEA’s Impact-Glove Working Group

 

IMPACT

 

CUT

  • No glove makes a worker superhuman.
  • Understand the different levels of cut protection that various gloves provide.
    • Levels A1, A2, A3 protect against scrapes.
    • Levels A4, A5, A6 protect against cuts for which stitches would be required.
    • Levels A7, A8 and A9 are meant to offer protection against brutal or extreme injuries.

 

PUNCTURE

  • Match the right protection to each hazard.
  • For example, not all puncture-resistant gloves protect against needle sticks.

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Questions?

Email ISEA Vice President, Operations and Technical Services Cristine Fargo at cfargo@safetyequipment.org, or

call ISEA at: 703-525-1695

ISEA Safe Hands At Work Campaign Member Companies

ISEA Hand Protection Group Members:

Ansell | Bob Dale Gloves | Conney Safety Products | DSM Dyneema | DuPont Personal Protection | D3O | Ergodyne | Global Glove | HexArmor | Honeywell Safety Products | Ironwear | Kimberly-Clark Professional | Lakeland Industries | Magid Glove and Safety | Majestic Glove | MCR Safety | National Safety Apparel | Protective Industrial Products | Pyramex Safety | Radians | Saf-T-Gard International | Wells Lamont Industrial | World Fibers

Safe Hands At Work Campaign Partners