First of all such gloves are not subject to any regulatory standards with respect to contamination. Monitoring at the factory level is generally non-existent and the final stages of production quite labor-intensive with only passing attention to hygienic standards in the assembly areas.

A number of studies have been done on this with records of even insect infestation being delivered as part of the deal! At the bacterial level another study* was carried out after recovery of Bacillus cereus in opened boxes of non-sterile gloves that had been kept stored in their native packages. It examined commercially available non-sterile non-powdered disposable gloves made of latex, vinyl, and nitrile. These were cultured and a large variety of spore-forming and non-spore-forming bacteria was recovered, including Bacillus cereus and Clostridium perfringens.

For a typical hospital this means trillions of such potentially dangerous organisms being brought into its environment, undesirable for a number of reasons and particularly so given today`s emphasis on the reduction in hospital acquired infections

Gloves from EcoGlove's range of re-usable Tr@ce gloves, by contrast, are each individually decontaminated to near sterile standards before any and after each use. The totally unique individual identification and traceability of each glove then adding another level of security.

*Bacterial contamination of non-sterile disposable gloves before use by Philippe Berthelot, MD, MPH, PhD and others at Saint-Etienne, France. Click here to read the PDF document