Hand Protection for Quick-lube Professionals

By Donald F. Groce
National Oil & Lube News – May 2003
published with permission

The explosion of quick-lube facilities over the last decade has led to a new industry that has displaced oil changes and other automotive maintenance services that were once the sole domain of service stations and dealership service departments. As with any new industry, operators are working their way through many issues like business models, employment and retention, supply sourcing, and although perhaps not front-of-mind, but very important – employee safety.

Most industries present hazards to the workforce that need to be considered to protect workers' safety and health. OSHA requires workers be provided with the correct personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect against hazards in the workplace. Although not as hazardous as many industries, the quick-lube industry has some serious hazards to contend with on a daily basis; primarily exposure to chemicals, petroleum products and sharp objects. And one of the most susceptible areas for injury is the hands.

The solution to hand protection is wearing the correct gloves; however gloves themselves can contribute to injuries if not selected correctly. There are three types of disposable gloves that could be used in the quick-lube industry: vinyl, latex and nitrile. Only one of these glove types is a good choice based on comparison of performance characteristics. Let's examine each type.

Vinyl Gloves
Vinyl gloves are very inexpensive, but they also offer little protection from petroleum products since they degrade upon exposure. They also offer little if any protection against other chemicals encountered in the quick-lube industry like cleaners, solvents, battery acid, brake fluid and transmission fluid. It is generally suggested that vinyl gloves not be used in this application.

Latex Gloves
Latex gloves also are not recommended for any application using petroleum products because they degrade. Latex gloves are better than vinyl for protection against some chemicals; however, latex can cause allergic reactions resulting in a condition known as contact dermatitis. This skin condition is a major problem for workers in many industries.

Contact dermatitis can result from exposure to chemicals or from a reaction to a glove component. Natural rubber latex proteins or rubber processing chemicals can cause contact dermatitis. Contact dermatitis, an irritation or inflammation of the skin, can show up as blisters and can be severe enough to cause permanent scarring of the skin. Because latex degrades from contact with petroleum and the possibility of allergic reaction, latex gloves are not recommended for use in the quick-lube industry.

Nitrile Gloves
Nitrile gloves are the best choice for the quick-lube industry because they:

• do not degrade upon exposure to petroleum,
• protect the wearer from most chemicals found in the industry, and
• do not cause latex allergies.

Nitrile is a synthetic rubber that was first used to manufacture disposable gloves for the medical industry in 1992. Since the explosion in latex related allergic reactions, nitrile has become widely accepted as the solution to disposable hand protection in many industries.

Also, nitrile gloves have a property that makes them conform to the hand better than vinyl or latex, making them more comfortable for extended use. In the medical industry, gloves are changed frequently; however in the quick-lube industry, the disposable nitrile glove can be worn for an entire day without causing hand fatigue. The table below shows the protective properties of latex and nitrile when using various products that may be found in the quick-lube industry.

Table 1

Glove Selection by Product Type for Products Requiring Glove Use

Product	Latex	Nitrile
Motor Oil	NO	YES
All Surface Polish	NO	YES
Auto Spray Wax	NO	YES
Automotive Film Remover	NO	YES
Carpet Extraction Cleaner	YES	YES
Citrus Degreaser	NO	YES
Citrus Spray	NO	YES
Cleaner Degreaser	YES	YES
Deodorizer	YES	YES
Glass Cleaner	YES	YES
Mildew Stain Remover	YES	YES
Parts Cleaner	NO	YES

Glove Testing
Extensive testing has been conducted with nitrile gloves using many products used in the petroleum industry. The primary test is breakthrough time, that is, how long can the glove be exposed to a material before the material breaks through the glove's protective barrier. A rating from one to six is then assigned to the glove, with a rating of six indicating the most effective protection. Below is a table listing various petroleum products and the breakthrough times and ratings for the N-DEX® disposable nitrile glove from Best Manufacturing Company.

Table 2

N-DEX Nitrile Glove Performance

Petrochemical Product Tested	Breakthrough Time Minutes	Glove Rating
Aeroshell Grease 22	>480	6
Alvania Grease 3	>480	6
Caprinus U Multigrade Railroad Oil	>480	6
Crude Oil Arab Light Fraction	305	5
Crude Oil Grissol Fraction	>480	6
Crude Oil Oriente Fraction	217	4
Crude Oil SDV Fraction	>480	6
Diesel Fuel	88	3
Donax TG Transmission Fluid	>480	6
Fire & Ice 2000 10W40 Motor Oil	>480	6
Jet Fuel	>480	6
Jet Fuel JP-4	33	2
Jet Fuel JP-8	>480	6
Kerosene	>480	6
Madrella P 150 Oil	>480	6
Rotella T Multigrade 15W40 Motor Oil	>480	6
Shell Diala Oil AX Base Oil	>480	6
Shell HVI 100 Neutral MQ Base Oil	>480	6
Shell Turbo T 68 Hydraulic Oil	>480	6
Shellwax 100	>480	6
Skydrol 500 B4	>480	6
Skydrol Ld-4	31	2
Spirax S 85W-140	>480	6

As this table shows, most of the products found in day-to-day use in the quick-lube industry will not break through a nitrile glove in less than eight hours, therefore they can be worn for an entire shift without performance degradation.

Rubber Accelerators
Although nitrile gloves do not cause allergic reactions nearly as often as latex, some people are sensitive to the accelerators used to manufacture both latex and nitrile gloves. In this case, an accelerator free glove is recommended. There is only one accelerator free disposable nitrile glove available today, the N-DEX Free.

What about Grip? Oil and other lubricants used in the quick-lube industry are slippery. Oil on the hands, either gloved or bare, can make grip difficult. One recent innovation from glove manufacturers is a nitrile glove that contains foam particles in the glove material. Nitrile gloves with foam are available that will absorb oil to improve grip. These gloves are specially designed for industries where lubricants are encountered while doing repair work and are ideal for the quick-lube professional.

Why Use Gloves at All?
At this time, glove use in the quick-lube industry is not wide-spread. In my personal experience, gloves are rarely worn by quick-lube professionals, but those I have observed using gloves usually claim to do so to keep their hands clean. However, is glove use a requirement in this industry? According to OSHA 1910.138, its general requirement for PPE, employers must identify hazards in the workplace and provide personal protective equipment (PPE), including hand protection, along with training on the correct use of the PPE.

Required by OSHA?
Other Hazards
Beyond exposure to petroleum and chemical products, it is worth mentioning the other significant risk to hands presented by this industry – cuts and puncture wounds. In fact, a hand injury from sharp objects is one of the main causes of occupational injuries according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. As quick-lube operators increase their service options beyond oil changes and fluid replacements into other repair work, the opportunity to encounter sharp objects increases. The correct protection from sharp objects is a cut-resistant glove.

Cut-resistant gloves are widely used in industries where sharp objects are commonplace like glass works, metal fabrication, food processing and assembly. These gloves are made from engineered fibers that provide greatly improved cut-protection compared to cotton or polyester work gloves. In addition, newly designed gloves have outstanding comfort and fit characteristics that provide excellent dexterity, so the glove does not interfere with the ability to perform required tasks.

Glove Selection
Most products used in the quick-lube industry have a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) that can be requested from the manufacturer and used to determine if gloves are required. Often the MSDS recommends rubber gloves. This term generally refers to natural rubber latex gloves, which have been used in most industries for many years. However, whenever the chemicals used contain any compound derived from petroleum distillation, natural rubber latex gloves are Not Recommended.

Nitrile gloves offer a broader range of protection from hazardous chemicals. In addition, nitrile gloves also offer excellent protection from exposure to aliphatic hydrocarbons or chemicals classified as petroleum distillates. So, nitrile gloves would protect from all of the products listed in Table 1, whereas natural rubber latex would offer protection from about half of the products where gloves are recommended.

Protection First
Protecting the health of the worker is the goal of everyone in the field of occupational health and industrial hygiene. Using the correct PPE can significantly reduce or eliminate the potential long-term debilitating consequences of exposure to hazardous chemicals in the workplace. And using gloves regularly can also reduce the likelihood of skin ailments from exposure to non hazardous materials and the drying effect from frequent hand washing with strong soaps and solvents.

Donald F. Groce, Best Manufacturing, is a technical product specialist and a research chemist. Before joining Best, he worked for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on chemical toxicology studies that included the Agent Orange Study. He is a noted speaker and expert on a variety of occupational and workplace hazards, including latex allergies and chemical exposure-related illnesses.

Best Manufacturing provides several lines of chemical resistant gloves, made from a wide variety of polymers, including neoprene, nitrile, natural rubber, PVC, butyl and Viton. Most of the neoprene, nitrile and natural rubber gloves are in compliance with 21CFR, 170-199 and are acceptable for food and pharmaceutical applications. Best maintains the www.chemrest.com web site, one of the most extensive repositories of testing data on chemical resistant gloves.