As a second-generation safety guy, I’ve seen tremendous change in the PPE industry. When asked about what’s new in the glove industry — new standards, new hazards or new ways to motivate people to wear the correct glove — the last two decades seemed to flash by in an instant. But I believe there are some encouraging trends in the industry today.
One of the things I encourage safety professionals and buyers to understand is the concept of “threshold.†That’s the minimum requirements gloves must possess to be worn — willingly. We all know that workers will wear gloves when being observed by the site safety manager, during an inspection or when they believe they are at risk of being “caught†without the required protection. But what makes workers want to wear gloves, all the time, without pressure from management?