Lightweight gloves
I use lightweight food service gloves to protect my hands for numerous chores. These are fairly easy to get hold of if you know where to look… Costco have them in handy boxes which can be stashed around the house for easy access.
Heavier gloves
I recommend you try more than one type before settling down on a regular purchase. Rite-Aid carry a selection of different types of gloves. I settled on nitrile gloves because they don’t contain latex – since I’m also mildly allergic to latex and don’t want to make it worse… think first before using latex gloves regularly – you may also add a latex allergy to your woes.
I use gloves without powder since I’ve found that bothers my hands.
I want to warn people about nitrile gloves. I developed hand eczema (dyshidrosis) from nitrile gloves and just learned that nickel chloride is used in manufacturing nitrile.
I allergies, asthma and sensitive skin. I started wearing nitrile gloves 4 or 5 years ago after a bout of contact allergic dermatitis from dishwashing liquid that left me with acute sensitivity to soaps and chemicals. I use the gloves for cleaning, dirty jobs, and any time I have to have my hands in water any length of time because my hands get dry and cracked if I don’t. I used to only wear then for 10-15 minutes at most until I got into a new hobby and few years ago and started wearing them for longer periods of time. One day I wore them off and on for 6-8 hours only taking them off when my hands began getting sweaty and uncomfortable. I’d wash my hands, take a break to let them dry and breathe awhile and then go don another pair and wear them until I hands got sweaty again. This went on all day long and I remembered thinking I don’t know how surgeons wear surgical gloves for long surgeries. The very next morning I woke to the onset of hand eczema (dyshidrosis). I had a cluster of teeny tiny blisters and doubled in size over the next week and then advanced to calloused skin which later began to peel, got tender, then itched. I was diagnosed by 2 doctors and told just to use cortisone.
Since I was diagnosed I have only had a few flare ups and really couldn’t pinpoint the cause up until yesterday. I woke to a new flare up aafter spending several hours the day before wearing nitrile gloves and getting sweaty palms. That’s when I became convinced the gloves were causing the problem. First I read more online info about dyshidrosis and learned that it may be caused by nickel allergy. Next I Googled ‘Nitrile Gloves +nickel’ and that’s when I learned that nickel chloride is used in the manufacturing process. AHA!
I am still researching glove allergies so I don’t have a solution to offer yet. I learned there are many glove allergies caused by accelerators and there are now some accelerator free gloves. I’m not sure whether nickel is an accelerator or whether it is a key component of nitrile. I’d suggest anyone reading this who has hand conditions do a little research. Kimberly Clark, who is the leader in healthcare gloves has a .pdf brochure that discusses the types of glove allergies.
Right now until I find an alternative glove I plan to limit my exposure and not wear nitrile gloves long enough that my hands sweat. Right now I consider my allergy to be mild, but allergies often start out mild and get worse. I think hand sweat may actually draw the allergan out of the glove. I read that wearing cotton glove liners underneath can help but my problem is I am doing delicate projects where I need to be able to feel and hold tiny objects and cotton liners would prevent this.
If you suffer from hand allergies do the research on glove allergies and accelerator free gloves for sensitive skin. Make sure you know what chemicals are used to manufacture whatever type of glove you choose to use. Ask yourself ‘What are ……… gloves really made of?’ What is nitrile? Do you know? Do you really think latex gloves are just made from latex from a rubber tree or do you think other chemicals might be used to take it from it’s raw state? What are vinyl gloves really made of?
Two excellent doctors diagnosed me but neither of them believed the gloves caused it when I asked them. Mind you, neither are dermatologists, but they are very knowledgeable doctors. I have read so many posts online where people went to dermatologists and they never discussed potential allergens or glove allergies.