How Do Anti-Vibration Gloves Work?
There’s no magic or mystery behind anti-vibration gloves. They’re exactly what you’d expect—standard work gloves with additional padding on the palms to absorb and dissipate vibrations from tools. While the padding helps protect your palms, it doesn’t do much to shield your fingers from vibrations.
The padding inside varies depending on the glove. Some use gel, others foam, and some incorporate special air pockets. No matter the material, they all aim to reduce the amount of vibration reaching your hands, wrists, and arms.
If you’ve never tried anti-vibration gloves before, it’s important to manage expectations. These gloves don’t perform miracles—they dampen tool vibrations rather than eliminating them entirely. So, if you’re hoping to completely remove yourself from vibration hazards, these gloves aren’t the answer. However, if you’re looking to minimize exposure and avoid long-term issues, anti-vibration gloves might help.
How Vibrating Equipment Impacts Workers
Why are people so concerned about hand, wrist, and arm vibrations? As we’ve mentioned earlier, prolonged exposure to vibrations can lead to serious long-term health problems.
Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome
The major concern you should aim to avoid is Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS). Extended exposure to vibrations can permanently damage the blood vessels and nerves in your hands and arms. This damage can result in numbness in your fingers, a weaker grip, and difficulty healing wounds on your hands and arms.
Raynaud’s Disease
Raynaud’s disease, also known as white finger syndrome, poses a risk to workers exposed to vibrations. Typically, Raynaud’s occurs in people exposed to cold conditions, causing poor circulation and discoloration of the fingertips. When exposed to vibrating tools, the damaged blood vessels caused by the vibrations prevent proper circulation, potentially triggering Raynaud’s even without cold exposure.
Carpal Tunnel
And if that’s not enough, vibrations can also lead to carpal tunnel syndrome. Carpal tunnel is usually caused by repetitive motions that damage the nerves in your hand, leading to numbness and muscle weakness. While this condition is often associated with office workers due to repetitive typing, it’s also a concern for construction and factory workers. However, the increasing use of ergonomic tools is helping reduce cases. Nonetheless, vibrations can still damage the nerves in your hand, causing carpal tunnel.
General Discomfort
Beyond the serious issues, the daily discomforts of vibration exposure are enough to make you reconsider your habits. After using a handheld tool for too long, do your hands go numb or do your arms feel tingly? These are warning signs that you’re harming your body, and they’re completely avoidable.
The real danger of vibration exposure isn’t the vibrations themselves—it’s how easily we ignore the clear signs that we’re damaging our bodies and causing permanent harm. Listen to your body, don’t tough it out, and make choices that ensure a safe and healthy future.
Who Should Use Anti-Vibration Gloves?
Let’s face it—anti-vibration gloves won’t protect you from all the disorders, diseases, and syndromes mentioned earlier. The best approach to avoiding HAVS is to try reducing your time exposed to vibrations or avoid them altogether. Abstinence didn’t work in your teenage years, and it won’t work now. For most workers, avoiding vibrations entirely isn’t an option. Instead, opt for tools designed to reduce vibration transfer to your hands and take regular breaks. Giving your body time to recover is crucial when exposed to any hazard.
Once you’ve done all that, if you want to take your safety measures a step further, that’s where anti-vibration gloves come in. If you’re already putting in the effort to avoid HAVS, why not take an extra precaution and wear a pair of anti-vibration gloves?
One important caveat to keep in mind is that anti-vibration gloves are only effective at absorbing high-frequency vibrations. Small hand tools usually emit high-frequency vibrations, so tools like drills, saws, grinders, and sanders are ideal for pairing with anti-vibration gloves.
Construction workers, automotive workers, and landscapers could especially benefit from having a pair of anti-vibration gloves.
What is ANSI S2.73 / ISO 10819?
Some anti-vibration gloves are ANSI/ISO rated for vibration resistance. If you’re familiar with other ANSI standards, like cut resistance, you’d probably expect to see a grading system for anti-vibration levels.
That’s not how this one works. The ANSI/ISO anti-vibration standard is a pass/fail test. Gloves either meet the standard or they don’t, with no levels. For this standard, gloves must meet certain physical specifications. They can’t be fingerless, they must have full palm padding without gaps, and the padding must be a maximum of 8mm thick.
Once those physical requirements are met, the gloves also need to meet performance metrics. Medium-frequency vibrations need to be reduced by 10% compared to not wearing gloves, while high-frequency vibrations need to be reduced by 40%.
Any glove claiming to meet the ANSI S2.73/ISO 10819 standard must meet all the above criteria. A 40% reduction in high-frequency vibrations can significantly lower your vibration exposure.
The Controversy Surrounding Anti-Vibration Gloves
If you’re researching anti-vibration gloves, you’ll likely encounter a lot of controversy over whether these gloves actually work or if they’re just a gimmick. Most say it’s a gimmick. Some studies suggest that anti-vibration gloves can actually increase the amount of vibration transferred to your hands and wrists. Others argue that the lack of finger protection renders these gloves useless.
These are both valid points. We mentioned earlier that these gloves aren’t effective at protecting against low-frequency vibrations. Using anti-vibration gloves with low-frequency tools like jackhammers or rammers could potentially do more harm than good. Additionally, some cheaply made gloves might claim to be vibration-resistant but simply have extra padding. These low-quality gloves may cause more harm at any vibration frequency. Always buy gloves from a trusted brand through a reputable retailer. Be cautious of knockoffs and gimmicks.
The lack of finger protection is a strong argument against anti-vibration gloves. Even with the ANSI rating, there’s no requirement for preventing vibrations from reaching your fingers. This is strange because power tools famously require finger manipulation, and fingers are just as vulnerable to vibration-related disorders as the rest of your hand. This might be the strongest argument against anti-vibration gloves.
If you recall from earlier, we mentioned that these gloves aren’t a solution for vibration hazards. To truly protect your body from the permanent damage caused by vibration exposure, you need to follow a list of precautions that doesn’t include anti-vibration gloves. Once you’ve started using ergonomic tools, learned when to take breaks, and figured out how to reduce your overall exposure, then you can consider adding a pair of anti-vibration gloves for added protection.
Think of it this way: imagine you’re getting into the passenger seat of a car, and you know the driver isn’t the best. You’d sit straight in that seat, buckle up, and maybe even lock the seatbelt for good measure. Locking the seatbelt isn’t strictly necessary, but it’ll help in case of an accident. That’s essentially what anti-vibration gloves are—they may not be necessary, but they’ll help when faced with a hazard.
Protect Your Workers with Anti-Vibration Gloves from PowerPak Civil & Safety
Hopefully, this article shed some light on the topic of anti-vibration gloves. It’s a confusing subject, and after researching and reading all the conflicting opinions online, it’s easy to get confused or discouraged. When writing this article, and any article for that matter, we always aim to provide accurate and safe information. We don’t want to sell anything that could cause harm. Read more about different types of construction gloves.
It’s entirely your choice to add this extra layer of protection. If you decide to try anti-vibration gloves, contact us at PowerPak, and we’ll get you started with a reputable pair today.
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