Abstract:
Gloves that significantly reduce the sense of touch, inhibit hand movement, and lack liquid protection can
reduce workers' capabilities and create barriers to using protective equipment properly. Protective gloves
unsuitable for the assigned task may be discarded, increasing the potential for skin exposure to chemical
and physical risks. This study evaluates the performance of several gloves commonly used by firefighters
to measure their usability compared to bare hands during demobilization and equipment cleaning tasks.
The gloves tested include structural firefighting gloves, leather work gloves, and a combination of leather
outer gloves with a medical examination glove underneath. We tested for tool manipulation, torque grip,
finger dexterity, and surface grip tests using standards from the National Fire Protection Association
(NFPA) and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). The testing results compared bare
hand baselines to completing the same tests with gloves to examine the trade-off between glove
protection and loss of finger dexterity and how it affects usability. Subjective feedback from participants
was gathered through completion survey questions to add context to the testing data, providing insights
into the user experience regarding effort, comfort, precision, and control.
The results indicate that structural gloves significantly hinder performance in tasks requiring fine motor
skills and torque application, possibly due to their construction and the additional thickness necessary to
provide physical protection and insulative properties. Leather gloves offer slightly reduced dexterity
compared to bare hands and provide some physical protection from cuts and punctures, but liquids leak
through stitched seams to reach the skin. The leather and medical combination glove usability results
were comparable to regular leather gloves, offering additional temporary resistance to liquids leaking
through the stitched seams. Participants indicated that structural gloves offered much less precision and
control while requiring much more effort to complete tests than bare hands. Survey results for the leather
and leather and medical combination gloves indicate less precision and control, with more effort required
to complete the tests than bare hands.