UCL chemist and demonstrator extraordinaire Andrea Sella, on his blog:
the wearing of gloves in the lab may, counter-intuitively, put us, our students, and our fellow lab workers at greater risk than riding their flasks bearback.
Do read the rest of his post, and likely the rest of his blog too.
I should talk to CLEAPSS about this sometime – Andrea’s comments on gloves make a lot of sense to me, but I’ve no idea what the standing advice for schools is. Ah, the simple life of not actually being a teacher.
The gloves issue is also true when handling Liquid Nitrogen. At the National Physical Laboratory the only serious accident with liquid nitrogen in the last couple of decades was caused by wearing gloves. Our safety procedures now advise the use of gloves when handling liquid nitrogen around the lab – or for demonstrations. Of course gloves are used for handling objects which have been chilled by contact with liquid nitrogen. We try to stay safe by using the minimum amount of a liquid – ideally an amount which if spilled will not cause harm unless it is trapped against the skin by – for instance – gloves.
The comment above should read
“Our safety procedures now advise AGAINST the use of gloves when handling liquid nitrogen around the lab – or for demonstrations.”