Vinyl, laboratory gloves

It is advised that you wear latex or vinyl exam gloves at all times in the laboratory. Even if a particular experiment does not require the use of hazardous chemicals, one can never be sure that those from a previous experiment have been properly disposed of. If volatile compounds are used, they should be stored under a fume hood at all times. If possible, students should work with these materials under the fume hood as well. The large amounts of materials that are often required for a laboratory group may soon fill the room with unpleasant and potentially hazardous vapors. This is particularily important if the reagent vapors are flammable (see Experiment 6) or radioactive (see Experiment 12). 

Polyisoprene is an important flexible rubbery material, one of the first rubbers to be used as it is found in nature (thus the alternate name natural rubber ). It is used in belts and hoses in automobiles, in laboratory gloves, and in mbber bands. The 1,2 and 3,4 reactions are sometimes known as vinyl addition, because part of the diene monomer simply acts as an X group in a vinyl monomer. 

In laboratory or in comparable conditions, soon after sampling (at least on the same day) add to the 100 ml filtered water sample bottle 1.0 ml of cone. HN03 acid with a droplet bottle. Use disposable clean vinyl gloves, because the acid is very corrosive. Do not let the droplet bottle touch the sample water in the bottle. Close the bottle tightly and shake it in order to get the acid well mixed with the water. Do not add acid to the 60 ml DOC sample bottle ... 

Caution Carry out all procedures in a well-ventilated hood, and wear disposable vinyl or latex gloves and chemical-resistant safety goggles. For handling diethyl-zinc wear a long laboratory coat, leather gloves, and a helmet with a face protection shield. 

In a study conducted at our laboratory facility, volunteer human subjects hands were inoculated with a strain of E. coli. The subjects then donned vinyl food-server gloves having four small needle punctures in each. Within 5 minutes, sampling of the outside of the gloved hands showed that E. coli had been transferred from the hands onto the outer surfaces of the gloves. 

HR Kotilainen, JL Avato, NM Gantz. Latex and vinyl nonsterile examination gloves status report on laboratory evaluation of defects by physical and biological methods. Appl Environ Microbiol 56(65) 1627-1630, 1990. 

Wearing disposable vinyl gloves, cut an approximately 20 X 35 cm (8 x Win) piece of chromatography paper. Be sure to note the machine direction so that the chromatogram will be developed in the same direction. This information can be found on the outside of the original box containing the paper. Alternatively, precut paper can be purchased from analytical laboratory and supply houses. 

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