Originally Posted by ChuckC

I do this kind of selection for our researchers and maintenance employees (I'm a Certified Industrial Hygienist). This is what I've come up with:

If you're worried about chemical resistance, don't buy latex gloves-they're worthless for that application. Latex is very porous and dissolves or swells in the presence of solvents. Having said that, they would work OK with "standard" epoxies as epoxy has a pretty large molecular structure-just don't use them with the more exotic epoxies or chemicals or polyester resin or...

Just get the nitrile gloves-they're only slightly more expensive than latex and offer fairly good resistance to solvents, epoxies etc. They also fit much better, giving you the dexterity you'll need. If you can, get the ones made for laboratory use (or secondly for exam use); they're designed with the experimenter in mind who holds glassware - it's the kind I use and they're as good or better than bare hands (like when handling real light fabrics-the fabric won't snag on your hands). Another advantage of the nitrile is that you can use them for spray painting where the solvents are fairly aggressive-try that with latex and you'll find the gloves swelling up and changing by a size or two. Also no Latex allergies.

Disadvantages of nitrile are 1) availability 2) tear a little easier 3) slightly more expensive.

Neoprene work great for many applications, but they're going to be "work" gloves or very expensive and kind of hard to find.

As far as vinyl - they're good for some applications, but the reduction in dexterity is intolerable for me to warrant saving $5. Just spend the 8-10 bucks a box of 100 on the nitrile gloves and do it right -the box will last long enough. Keep the resin off your skin to begin with to prevent allergy development. You don't even want to go there-it's permanent and easy to avoid.

Charles H. Carlisle, CIH, CSP