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Comment by jeffbee | Hacker News Reader

Frustratingly familiar from my college days is the vagueness of these instructions. "Wear appropriate gloves." Such as? It is easier to write "wear butyl gloves." Even the MSDS for 6M HCl doesn't say "wear butyl gloves" it says "Select glove material impermeable and resistant to the substance." Like, duh. Is there a PPE lobbyist who prevents people from writing down concrete recommendations?

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A good point, a very good point. Too many procedures or guides are ruined by being vague on some minor yet critical point. Probably obvious the the writer but not to the reader.

However I will note this guide specifically points out to use butyl gloves twice.

Because recommendations will vary by not only currently accepted practices, but also geographical variances in product availability. It's better to look at what you have on hand and cross-reference with up-to-date information.

Much like most people won't simply know how dangerous it is to mix Nitrile gloves and Nitric Acid. When things can melt your skin, it's always good form to verify safety info at the time rather than just taking somebody's word for it, no?

My 2 cents that is probably obvious anyhow

Nitrile gloves are quite useless against many common substances, including acetone, esters, acetic acid, and everything else with "acet" in the name. Aside from a few cases where nitrile works and others don't (some hydrocarbons, among others), there's usually something more protective.

At this point I was wondering what gloves to use with what chemicals. And found this document prepared by the ansell company.

https://research.usu.edu/ehs/files/ansell-8th-chemical-resis...

For non chemists just working with standard commercial stuff(Epoxy, UV resin, grocery store cleaning chemicals, and that's about it), various sites and ads give the impression nitrile is "The good default thing you should use"....

Good to know that's not always the case?

There's no one glove type that works for all substances & situations.

Can you get gloves made from PTFE? I feel those would be the closest you could get to an "everything" glove.

Ptfe film and tape is common occurrence. Just wrap it around maybe?

Nitrile is a fine default at home and in the lab if you make sure to change your gloves when they are contaminated. You can also double glove.

>Aside from a few cases where nitrile works and others don't (some hydrocarbons, among others), there's usually something more protective.

Good luck finding something that protects your hand from the fairly occasional DCM/DMF/name any org solvent drops/spatters/spills

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