Are Cotton gloves best for archival applications?
March 29, 2010
Are Cotton gloves best for archival applications?
-
There’s definitely something about handling an object wearing a crisp white pair of cotton gloves that instils the feeling within that you’re taking the utmost care of some valued object be it some sort of precision optical instrument; some ancient, irreplaceable artefact or some other object that demands a greater level of care.
Recently however, while researching general information about using cotton gloves, I came across a couple of very interesting articles that started me thinking and opened my mind to other possibilities. Working as we do with many varieties of disposable gloves and having considerable experience of semiconductor clean room environments. The points raised in these articles make more sense the more I think about them.
Firstly let me credit Dr Cathleen Baker and Randy Silverman for an article entitled ‘Misperceptions about White Gloves’ in an issue of International Preservation News and Anthea Brown a Project Archivist at Western Sydney Records Centre. Interestingly, Anthea found that Nitrile gloves were preferred by their researchers and this finding also seemed to be reflected in a web pole she carried out with wider audience base.
There can’t be many people who aren’t aware that handling with bare hands will leave finger prints on the handled object. Anyone with any sort of familiarity with handling valuable, old or delicate objects will certainly be aware that the same moisture and oils that leave the fingerprints, also have the potential to damage sensitive surfaces. The primary benefit in wearing cotton gloves whilst handling these delicate objects, is to avoid direct contact between our skin and the object being handled.
By donning the cotton gloves, it’s reasonable to assume that we’ve covered this potential source of damage but as Dr Cathleen Baker and Randy Silverman point out, the tendency of cotton to wick away moisture from our hands, may eventually lead to this moisture still coming into contact with the handled object. Whilst cotton gloves, can provide an element of protection for a limited period of time, as a moisture barrier they are particularly ineffective.
Detail view of cotton glove finger
The traditionalists may argue that the moisture transmission issue could be managed by insisting that gloves are changed at regular intervals but it’s the point that has been made with respect to the reduced dexterity that provides the strongest case for moving away from cotton gloves. Even in an ideal world, where gloves were a perfect fit for our hands, the nature of the cotton material and the thickness of the gloves themselves reduce the users tactile sensitivity. The lack of any sort of grip between the surface of the cotton and the object being handled often requires users to apply much greater force than they would normally use with bare hands in order to grip the object. In practice, this reduced sensitivity is made worse by the design of the cotton glove invariably having seams in the material close to the finger tips or awkwardly placed between the finger tips, reducing the users dexterity. Even worse, many suppliers claim that there is a single size of glove that will fit all men or all women. Obviously there will be a proportion of users than are adequately catered for with a single size gloves, any one with larger or smaller hands than normal is likely to be find their dexterity compromised further.
Whilst cotton gloves are not expected to be give years of service, their cost alone usually dictates that they are laundered and reused several times at least. The above issues are a concern with new gloves but when one considers the added issues and complications associated with laundering and reusing cotton gloves, the above issues become greater. As Anthea mentioned, the whole logistic issue around laundering and sorting the different size gloves, not to mention how one accounts for the inevitable shrinkage, just compounds the problems.
So what are the alternatives?
Anthea’s post and poll quite rightly identified Nitrile disposable gloves as being an excellent alternative to using cotton gloves for handling archive documents. As she mentions, Nitrile gloves avoid potential issues with users who suffer from natural rubber latex allergies.
We would like to just offer a few comments and some suggestions as to what to look for when selecting gloves to use as an alternative to cotton gloves for archival purposes.
Choice of glove material type.
Magnified view of blossom latex glove showing smooth and enhanced grip texture.
For an application where manual dexterity is a key factor, the choice of glove is essentially between natural rubber latex (NRL) and Nitrile gloves. Typically NRL gloves tend to offer the greatest levels of elasticity and flexibility. As a material NRL, also generally offers a higher level of friction that helps grip and the touch sensitivity. Furthermore, many manufacturers of both NRL and Nitrile gloves, build in a textured the surface of the gloves to further aid user handling.
Some antique forums specifically advise against using cotton gloves due to the risk of products slipping during handling. NR latex gloves provide excellent enhanced grip for handling products. On the downside, the high level of friction that helps the grip can also make the gloves more difficult to don. With NR latex gloves being designed to minimise the transmission of infections via bodily fluids. They should be more than capable of preventing, moisture and oils from coming into contact with the object being handled.
If it wasn’t for the allergy issues associated NR latex, clearly NR latex gloves would be an excellent option for these types of application. What is ‘interesting’ is the way that the potential latex allergy issue is handled by different countries. Whilst many countries are moving away from NR latex gloves entirely. In Germany people seem generally happy to use power free NR latex gloves. In a recent promotion we were surprised by the responses from several clients that they had never even heard of Nitrile examination gloves (Nitril Einmalhandschuhe).
Magnified view of Blossom nitrile gloves
Nitrile gloves, on the other hand, being made from a synthetic nitrile rubber, contain none of the natural rubber latex protein that is responsible for the majority of the allergy issues. However, there is a lot of variation in the quality of nitrile gloves on the market these days. It is certainly true that the better quality nitrile gloves offer comparable flexibility and elasticity to NR latex gloves. However, at the other extreme of the Nitrile product range, poorer quality nitrile gloves can seem rigid and lack the flexibility of better quality products. This lack of flexibility makes the gloves less comfortable to wear for periods of time. Consequently, many users may select a larger size of a poorer quality nitrile gloves to compensate for the lack of flexibility. This poor fit, coupled with the stiffer more rigid feel to the Nitrile material, counters many of the arguments in favour of making the change from cotton gloves in the first place. As a material, nitrile does offer a lower level of friction between the glove and object being handled compared with NR Latex gloves. However, putting this into perspective, the level of grip offered is significantly better than with cotton gloves and most Nitrile gloves these days incorporate some sort of surface texture to enhance the wear’s ability to grip products.
-
In summary.
- NR latex gloves are an excellent alternative to cotton gloves if the latex allergy issues can be managed.
- Whether Nitrile or NR latex gloves are used it is essential that the user selects the correct size of gloves for their hands. Badly fitting disposable gloves may also result in artefacts being damaged through loss of touch sensitivity.
- There are many different glove products available on the market, different thicknesses, different surface textures try different products to find a product that suits your particular application. For archival applications where the primary requirement is to prevent damage and soiling of the product being handled, it may be worth considering some of the new light weight nitrile gloves (~ 0.09mm thick) which further improve flexibility and sensitivity.