Have you ever had the experience of a strange smell emitting from your disposable gloves when you pull them out of the box or from your hands after wearing your gloves for an extended period of time? Well, we have your answers that may shed some light! There are a few different reasons why this happens.
There are some signs to watch out for when you’re first taking disposable gloves out of the box. If they don’t pass a certain “smell” test then there is a possibility something might not be quite right. In latex gloves, after snapping them a few times, you may discover a pretty offensive smell. This smell comes from residual chlorine that gets trapped in the molecules of the latex. Chlorine is used to cleanse disposable glove of residues and powders used during the manufacturing process. The smell is the result of those chlorine molecules continuing to release as the glove gets warmed up. In nitrile gloves, the odor you smell comes from manufacturing impurities that haven’t been properly removed during the manufacturing process. While a subtle odor is natural for disposable gloves, anything stronger means that the gloves could potentially be contaminated and may require some independent lab testing to determine id they are indeed contaminated.
Another source of glove and hand odor comes from your body’s natural sweat processes. If you’re wearing disposable gloves and working with your hands for a long period of time, it is natural for your hands to begin sweating, and that sweat will get trapped within the gloves. Thus, when you remove your gloves after a time of work, there can be an unpleasant odor. Often times, bodily sweat mixes with the powder and/or chemicals in the disposable gloves and creates a strong unpleasant smell.