combat wombat said:
My hands are very dry. I use hand lotion.
Gloves pick up all the germs. Can yoy effectively walk those gloves throughout there day? Are you going to touch your face with the gloves? For that to be effective you basically need to wash your gloves as many times as yoi would wash your hands throughout the day.
I used to work in a research lab at TAMU. Yes I could walk all day wearing them because I had to. Granted I changed gloves between cleaning out each room or doing animal health checks. Except for when I was changing gloves yes I wore them all day. It's possible. IMO with rubber gloves I'll be less likely to touch my face. You're more cognazant.
It seems to me that it would be better for your skin if you're going to be washing that much to wear gloves. Especially if you have dry skin. Washing hourly or every time you come in contact to one of 100 people in a day will dry the crap out of your skin even more. But ultimately its the practice of taking them off before you get to your car is the control here. You will likely forget to wash your hands at some point. You won't forget to take your gloves off. But you are right, gloves pick up the same germs your hands do and require the same washing. But gloves don't have nails. Gloves don't have knuckles or other groves and crevices for bacteria to hide. If your hands are dry they get more crevices. Reusable gloves can be stuck in a bucket of bleach water at the end of your day (or beginning) for additional sanitation to help reduce the spread..
Plus you can handle stronger chemicals more frequently if you are wearing gloves. Like purell or isopropyl alcohol if there's no soap/water immediately available.
Most women know to put lotion on before putting on the glove to keep your skin soft and hydrated. Unless you're using something like Kiehls Creme de Corps or Aquifor Eurcerin you're not doing much to repair the moisture barrier to your skin.
We have always kept rubber gloves at our house. It's a habit I got into after working at the research lab. We use them to handle meat and eggs to prevent accidental cross contamination. I use dish washing gloves when I am washing the dishes. They allow me to wash at the hottest temperature without scalding your hands and drying out/damaging your skin. Heck, When our great dane had wounds on her foot that had to be treated daily with a yellow goo that had a huge warning "Dangerous to human reproduction" I wore rubber gloves to treat her.
Rubber gloves (reusable or disposable) should probably be a staple in everyone's home.
Even then, I'm not so asinine to think that we can stop the spread with these techniques but for someone that has high risk of exposure and high risk hospitilzation at home, he needs to double down and maybe triple down on his efforts. As some have said even self isolation might be best. Maybe a group of his co-workers need to rent out a local hotel and self isolate.
