OSHA Hand Protection: Practical Guide to OSHA 1910.138 and 1926.95 Standards

“Hand injuries are one of the most common injuries in the workplace… The good news is that hand injuries are also one of the easiest injuries to prevent.”

That's what Dr. Matthew Walker, an OrthoIndy hand, wrist, and elbow specialist, has to say about hand injuries. And what he says shows up in the records in the form of cuts, nasty abrasions, small crush injuries, thermal burns, and chemical burns to the fingers and palms.

You might think these sound like minor injuries, but trust me, they can make a big difference in someone's daily life. A split knuckle can make it painful to grip a tool, swipe your badge, or steer a wheel. And once you've got an injury like that, it can follow you right into your own home, making everyday things like cooking, typing, or even showering a real struggle.

I've had my fair share of conversations with supervisors about hand safety in the workplace, and usually I try to anchor the discussion in what these incidents really cost when you add up all the expenses. Using the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Safety Pays estimator, as well as some industry summaries of hand-injury data, the picture looks like this:

• A typical hand laceration can run into tens of thousands of dollars once indirect costs are added.
• A puncture or crush injury often costs more because of imaging, wound care, and longer restricted duty.
• A fracture or high-energy incident to the hand can reach well into five figures, sometimes higher, for a single case.

How often are these injuries preventable? Most of the time.

You can look at cases documented by IMCA Safety Flash: there's one where a worker's little finger was broken when a moonpool door ram shifted on a pallet while they were handling it, and then another where a worker cutting a bare hand on a sharp edge while removing ceiling plates; investigators noted that gloves were required and that wearing them would have prevented the injury.

My point here is simple: PPE only works when people actually use it.

Key Takeaways

• OSHA requirement is simple: when jobs expose hands to cuts, punctures, crushing, burns, chemicals, or harmful temperatures, employers must provide and require appropriate hand protection under 29 CFR 1910.138 and 1926.95.
• Hand protection PPE is not one-size-fits-all; glove selection must be based on the specific task, hazard, work conditions, and duration of use to ensure workers will actually wear them.
• Updated construction rules under OSHA 1926.95 reinforce that PPE must properly fit each worker, recognizing that poor fit increases snagging risk, fatigue, and loss of control.
• Gloves are not always the safest option around rotating or moving machinery, where engineering controls, guarding, and safe work practices may provide better protection than PPE.
• Effective hand protection programs focus on real-world use: replacing damaged gloves promptly, offering multiple glove options, and reinforcing short, task-specific coaching on the job.

What Is the OSHA Standard for Hand Protection?

The basic rule under OSHA is this: if a task exposes workers’ hands to hazards, the employer has to provide and enforce the use of hand protection PPE that’s appropriate for those hazards. That requirement appears in 29 CFR 1910.138 (general industry) and 29 CFR 1926.95 (construction), which treat gloves as part of the required PPE when those hazards are present.

The need for that protection is crystal clear in a Department of Labor (DOL) study, which found that more than 23% of all reported work injuries involve fingers or hands. And according to Ringers’ industry summary of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, the total cost of hand and wrist injuries clocks in at over $700 million in a single year.

But here's the thing: hand protection only helps if the gloves actually stay on. If gloves are too hot, stiff, or just plain uncomfortable to wear, people are going to take them off, even if the risk is still there. That's why comfort is an important part of what we mean by “appropriate protection.” As Victoria Jaqua, a medical community lead who spoke at a National Academies workshop on PPE design, said:

“The best PPE is PPE that people wear, and PPE worn repeatedly over a long time is going to be PPE that allows the person to feel as if they are not wearing it.”

1910.138: OSHA Hand Protection for General Industry

The OSHA hand protection rule for general industry breaks down into two main parts:

Section (a) states the general requirement. Employers must select and require employees to use appropriate hand protection when hands are exposed to hazards, including skin absorption of harmful substances, severe cuts or lacerations, severe abrasions, punctures, chemical burns, thermal burns, and harmful temperature extremes.

Section (b) addresses selection. Now, when choosing a glove, employers need to think about which hand protection makes the most sense for the task at hand, the conditions they're working in, how long the gloves will be worn, and what hazards are lurking in that work environment.

I think this part is really important because it means doing a site-specific analysis. Every situation is different and needs its own solution. Let me give you a few examples of what I've seen work well in real-world situations.

In a metal fabrication facility, workers handling freshly cut parts wore ANSI A4 cut-resistant gloves during handling and transport. That reduced lacerations by over 80% within six months. In a chemical mixing area, nitrile gloves rated for the specific chemicals in use replaced generic latex, eliminating the skin irritation complaints that had plagued that department. In a cold storage warehouse, insulated gloves with grip coatings solved both the temperature exposure and the dropped-product issues.

Each solution above came from analyzing the specific hazards present. If I can point to the task, name the hand hazards, and show how the glove choice fits those hazards and conditions, I am usually comfortable that 1910.138 has been met in a real, not just paper, sense.

1926.95: PPE in Construction and How It Covers Hand Protection

In construction, the glove conversation sits inside the broader personal protective equipment rule in 29 CFR 1926.95.

That standard tells employers to provide and maintain PPE for eyes, face, head, and “extremities” whenever work processes, chemicals, or mechanical irritants can injure the body through physical contact. Hands are part of those extremities, so gloves fall under the same expectation: if the task can hurt skin, fingers, or hands, appropriate hand protection has to be part of the plan.

A December 2024 revision to 1926.95, effective last January 13, 2025, also added explicit language requiring PPE to properly fit each employee. This matters for hand protection because gloves that are too big can catch on equipment, and ones that are too tight can cause fatigue and restrict blood flow. OSHA added that bit after hearing from employees, particularly women, that they were getting PPE that didn't fit properly.

How the Two Standards Overlap and Where They Differ

📌Multi-Employer Tip: On mixed-use or multi-employer sites, treat 1910.138 and 1926.95 as one system. Use a shared glove matrix for OSHA hand protection, and have all employees follow it so that different types of gloves give the same level of hand safety in the workplace for everyone.

Understanding Hand Hazards: The Starting Point for Hand Protection

How to Spot Hand Hazards in Your Own Workplace

I find that hand risks are easiest to spot when the focus is not the paperwork, but where hands actually go during real work. Before anyone talks about hand protection or brands of gloves, it helps to watch tasks and treat every reach, grab, and twist as a clue.

Liberty Mutual’s hand injury study, co-sponsored with NIOSH and Harvard, showed just how valuable those clues are. Out of over a thousand acute work-related hand injuries, the most common types were:

So most damage comes from contact with sharp edges, pinch points, and small penetrations, not rare freak events. That's exactly the kind of pattern a simple walkthrough can pick up if you keep hands in mind. A basic walk-through process for hand hazards might look something like this:

1. Pick a short route

• Choose one line, bay, or area instead of trying to cover the whole site.
• Plan to watch only a handful of tasks from start to finish.

2. Watch where your hands actually go

• Stand off to the side and track hands, not tools.
• Note every time a hand goes near: sharp edges, moving parts, impact points, hot or cold surfaces, or liquids that could cause thermal burns or chemical burns.

3. List materials, tools, and contact points

• For each step, write down what the hands touch: metal, glass, plastic, rough wood, banding, packaging, concrete, chemicals.
• Capture tools that sit between the hand and the work (knives, grinders, wrenches, tie wire tools, mixers).

4. Mark the higher-risk touches

• Highlight steps where a slip, trip, or small mistake would likely cause severe cuts, abrasions, crush points, punctures, or burns.
• Note where hands are in the line of fire when equipment or workpieces do something unexpected.

5. Turn the notes into a short list of potential hazards identified

• Group the contacts into a few buckets: “sharp and burrs,” “pinch and crush,” “hot/cold,” “chemicals,” “impact,” and so on. That list becomes the starting point for picking appropriate hand protection PPE that actually fits the real exposures, instead of guessing.

The Liberty Mutual study also found that risk jumped when tools or materials didn't behave like they were supposed to, or when workers did something a bit out of the ordinary, or if they were in a rush or distracted. That all lines up with this warning:

“Human error is one of the most common causes of hand injuries in the workplace,” said Dr. Matthew Walker. “It’s easy to let your mind wander after a long day or ignore typical safety measures that seem mundane. However, these simple distractions can cause serious injuries to yourself or your coworkers.”

The common thread is that workers usually know which tasks feel rushed, improvised, or just feel a bit unsteady with their hands. That's why a good hand safety inspection at the workplace shouldn't be a solo job. The people doing the work spot small risks that may never make it into formal reports.

How to Build a Basic Hand Hazard Inventory

Once the inspection notes are in, the next step is to put them into a simple list that can be reused and updated. The way I do it is pretty straightforward:

Task → Hazard type → Current controls

The goal is to capture how your hands are used in each step, what can hurt them, and what safety measures are already in place. That list then becomes the starting point for choosing the right hand protection and improving hand safety in the workplace without starting from scratch every time.

For most workplaces, the hazard column tends to be pretty consistent. You usually end up with the same basic categories: cut, crush or impact, puncture, chemical burns, thermal burns, cold, electrical, and biological exposure. Grouping hand hazards this way keeps the inventory easy to read as you add more tasks.

Here is a basic format that can live in a spreadsheet, a form, or a training slide:

Over time, more rows can be added for tasks in fabrication, lab work, warehousing, and field operations. The main thing is that the same columns stay in the same place, so you can compare the potential hazards in one area with another when choosing different types of gloves or other controls. This single list will often become a reference point for utility talks, glove trials, and reviews of OSHA hand protection expectations, rather than keeping separate lists that never seem to line up.

When Engineering and Admin Controls Aren’t Enough

Workplace safety starts at the top of the hierarchy of controls. First try to remove the danger, then block it, then change how the job is done. Only after that does hand protection PPE come into the picture. In practice though, even really well-designed guards and procedures leave some hand hazards behind, and that is where gloves are no longer optional.

I tend to boil the hierarchy down to a quick check like this:

• Can the task be redesigned so hands do not go near the risk at all?
• If not, can guarding, fixtures, or lockout keep hands out of the danger zone most of the time?
• Are there clear rules and training around the awkward steps that remain?
• After all that, where are hands still exposed to cuts, abrasions, punctures, and burns that keep showing up in first aid logs?

The Nebraska Beef investigation is a good reminder of just how all those layers fit together in the grand scheme of workplace safety. OSHA found that a worker’s fingertip had gotten caught in a forklift attachment at a meat processing plant, and to make matters worse the accident led to an amputation.

But it wasn't just the accident itself that raised red flags with OSHA, it was the inspection that followed which uncovered a whole host of problems like missing lockout procedures and weak material handling procedures around dock equipment. Once those engineering and administrative gaps were addressed though, hands in that setting still had to contend with being close to forks, pallets, metal edges and cold, wet product every day.

And for that day-to-day exposure, having suitable hand protection isn't just a 'nice to have' anymore as it becomes the last line of defense between a worker's hands and all the potential hazards that they encounter on a regular basis. That means selecting hand protection PPE that is specifically chosen for the task at hand using different types of gloves and glove material to make sure that the hand protection actually fits the real potential hazards that the worker is likely to encounter.

How to Choose the Right Hand Protection PPE

Different Types of Gloves and What They’re Good At

Research has proven that wearing gloves can cut the risk of an acute hand injury by about 60%, if you use them properly, that is. But the thing is: if the glove doesn't actually match the real hand hazards of the job, it's not going to do a lot of good. The table below groups the main types of gloves by what they are good at and where they fall short, so they can be matched to OSHA hand protection needs and the right hand protection PPE for each task.

What Type of Gloves Are Recommended by OSHA?

OSHA does NOT recommend specific brands of gloves. Under the OSHA gloves requirement in 1910.138(b), the agency expects employers to choose appropriate hand protection based on how well the glove matches the hazard, the task, the conditions, and how long it will be worn. In practice, that means OSHA cares about the thought process that goes into picking gloves, not just the logo on the cuff.

When I'm picking hand protection for workers, I've got a simple checklist that helps make the choice a whole lot easier:

• What can actually hurt the hands here? (sharp edges, crush points, punctures, chemical burns, thermal burns, cold, electrical contact, or contamination)
• How often and for how long? (one quick touch, repeated handling all shift, or steady contact with the hazard)
• What are the surfaces like? (dry, wet, oily, sticky, or a mix, because that changes grip)
• How precise is the work? (fine finger control or heavier handling that allows a thicker glove)
• Any special factors? (need for easy removal, allergy concerns, voltage rating, or hygiene rules)

Once you've got those factors on the table, it becomes a whole lot clearer which types of gloves are actually a good fit, and which ones only look right from a distance.

How to Balance Protection, Dexterity, and Worker Comfort

Too much protection can backfire. Extra-thick impact styles may look safe, yet on the floor they can turn simple jobs into a wrestling match with tools and parts. Chris Ellerby, director of industrial safety at Koroyd, describes the problem clearly:

“Most impact protection gloves do not allow the hand to function effectively and create muscular fatigue, which can lead to accidents. They are also bulky, cumbersome and prevent the wearer from having the flexibility and dexterity to perform critical tasks safely.”

I have heard the same complaint from fitters who need to feel threads start, or electricians trying to work in tight panels. When hand protection PPE makes every small task harder, people start inventing workarounds. That is usually when the incident log fills up with “quick” jobs done without gloves and a run of severe cuts or severe abrasions.

IBEW Safety Department Director Mark MacNichol summed it up like this:

“A glove that’s too big is more dangerous than no glove at all,” he said. “They can get caught up; they can pinch your fingers off. It’s just common sense to have these additional protections.”

A few practical hand safety tips I gathered below help balance protection, dexterity, and comfort when choosing different types of gloves:

• Check the fit during real work: Get people to try on gloves while they're actually doing the job. If the fingers float, seams twist, or cuffs ride up, then that pair won't stay on for long.
• Give people more than one option: Let workers compare a few models that all meet the hazard need. Their feedback on grip, heat, and stiffness can tell you which hand protection PPE they can actually live with for an 8-hour shift.
• Do small glove trials instead of going big: Try out a few volunteers, then adjust the size range or model before rolling it out more widely. It's a simple way to get buy-in and catch problems early.
• Fold comfort questions into every hand safety toolbox talk: Simple prompts such as “Where do gloves get in your way on this job?” or “Which tasks make you take them off?” often reveal where protection and dexterity are out of balance.

Practical Hand Safety Tips Workers Will Actually Follow

What Can You Do to Protect Your Hands from Any Hazards on Your Worksite?

Most of the real protection for your hands comes from small habits you repeat all day, not just from the pair of gloves the site hands you. Here is a worker-side checklist you can use on any job, whatever hand hazards you are dealing with.

Before you start

• Look at your gloves: Check for holes, stiff spots, cuts in the palm, loose stitching, or thin areas. Damaged hand protection PPE can hide the real risk until something slips or tears. Grab another pair if anything looks suspect.
• Clear your hands of extras: Take off rings, bracelets, and watches. Jewelry catches on edges and can pull fingers into places they do not belong, even if you are wearing OSHA hand protection.
• Match glove to task: If you are changing from sharp metal to chemicals, or from hot work to cold storage, change gloves, too. One “favorite” pair is not appropriate hand protection for every job.

While you are working

• Keep hands out of the line of fire: Stop whatever it is you're doing and make sure your hands aren't in the way if the load shifts, the tool kicks back, or the part breaks free. If your hand is where the force is going to end up, get it out of the way before you do anything else.
• Use tools instead of fingers for pushing and pulling: Tap, pry, and push with bars, hooks, push sticks, or the tool handle instead of your palm. It feels slower at first, but it is one of the simplest habits for preventing hand injuries.
• Avoid over-reaching and blind grabs: if you can't see what you're doing, don't reach in. Pull out any guards you need to get to it, turn on a light, or move yourself so you can see what you're getting at. Trying to grab something you can't see is a common cause of nasty cuts and scrapes.
• Watch the pinch points: Look for gaps between moving parts, doors, clamps, forks, and stacked material. Treat them as “no parking zones” for your hands, even for quick adjustments.
• Mind wet, oily, or cold surfaces: Slippery or numb hands lose grip fast. If gloves are soaked, coated in oil, or too cold to feel the tool, change out or warm up before you continue. That small pause can save a lot of skin.

After or between tasks

• Check your gloves again: Look for new cuts, thin spots, or damage from the last task. A glove that took a hit may not be safe for the next one.
• Report damaged PPE instead of hiding it: If your gloves are getting wrecked fast, or they're tearing in the same spot all the time then let your supervisor or safety lead know about it. They can sort you out with some new gloves or work out a way to get better protection.
• Speak up when something feels wrong: If you keep needing to pull gloves off to finish a step, or you see the same minor injuries again and again, bring it into the next hand safety toolbox talk. Small pattern changes are usually where better OSHA hand protection starts.

Situations Where Not Wearing Gloves Is Actually Safer

This bit might come as a surprise to some people: gloves are not universally good. Around rotating machinery like lathes, drill presses, and grinders, gloves can catch and pull hands into the equipment. The potential hazards identified include exactly the following examples.

In an OSHA accident report, a machinist was polishing a shaft on a lathe while wearing a latex glove. The glove caught on the spinning shaft, pulled his hand into the machine, and his little finger was amputated after surgery. The workpiece itself was not unusual; the glove turned a slip into a serious injury.

Massachusetts public health authorities saw the same pattern enough times that they issued a statewide safety alert. The bulletin documents multiple amputations where gloves were caught in rotating jointers and milling machines, and it gives a clear rule: never wear gloves when operating machinery with accessible rotating or other moving parts. In those situations, the glove is not appropriate hand protection; it is part of the entanglement.

So what protects your hands when gloves are the wrong answer? In my experience, the alternatives look like this:

• Fixed guards and covers that keep fingers away from chucks, spindles, belts, and wheels in the first place.
• Jigs, fixtures, and workholding so hands are not used to steady parts while they rotate or move.
• Push sticks, clamps, and feed devices instead of fingers for guiding stock on jointers, sanders, and drill presses.
• Safe distance rules so sleeves, hair, and loose clothing stay out of the danger zone along with hands.
• Lockout/tagout for adjustments and cleaning, so no one is reaching near moving parts while they can still start or coast.
• Clear training and signage that spell out “no gloves at this machine” as part of hand protection PPE rules, not as a personal preference.

It’s situations like this where a good hand safety toolbox talk matters. Workers need to hear that “no gloves at the lathe” is not cutting corners on OSHA hand safety; it is a targeted way to reduce one of the worst hand hazards on the floor while relying on guards, setup, and distance instead of fabric that can catch.

5 Tips for Supervisors and Safety Leads

1. Do a 10-Second Glove Scan at the Start of the Job

When you walk into an area or start a hand safety toolbox talk, take a quick look before saying anything:

• Are people wearing gloves where obvious hand hazards exist?
• Does the glove type roughly fit the job (no disposables on sharp metal, no plain leather in strong chemicals, no thin gloves in cold storage)?
• Do you see torn palms, taped fingers, or cuffs that are falling apart?

If something is clearly off, treat it as a fixable mismatch, not a gotcha moment.

2. Coach in Short, Specific Phrases

When you give on-the-spot coaching, try to keep it brief because your goal is to get people pointed in the right direction with their hand protection without getting into a policy lecture.

• “Those gloves are okay for an inspection but not for messing around with that solvent. Let's switch to the chemical gloves.”
• “You are still getting nicks here. We may need a higher cut level for this station.”
• “These are too bulky for that fine work. Let’s try a different style.”

3. Swap Out Bad Gloves Instead of Just Warning About Them

If a pair is obviously wrong or worn out, replace it:

• Keep a small stash of common sizes where you can reach them quickly.
• Take damaged gloves out of circulation so they do not reappear on the next shift.
• Make a note if one task keeps destroying gloves; that often points to the need for other types of gloves or a change in task design.

4. Ask What Is Not Working for the Crew

The workers usually have a good idea of where gloves are letting them down:

• “Where do these gloves make your work harder?”
• “Which step makes you pull them off?”
• “Is there a task where you get the same small injury over and over?”

Their answers are often the most useful hand safety tips you will get, and they highlight gaps that no form will ever show.

5. Keep a Small “Glove Sample Kit” on Site

It's helpful to have a supervisor who can say "let me see what we've got" instead of "we only have this one type". A small box in the shop or tool room with a few real options lets you sort out problems on the spot rather than sending people away empty handed. In that kit, it usually makes sense to include:

• a couple of cut-resistant gloves at different cut levels for metal or glass work
• one or two chemical-resistant styles with different cuff lengths or thicknesses for wet or splashy tasks
• an insulated pair for cold rooms or outdoor winter jobs
• a basic impact style for heavier lifting or rigging

How to Run an Effective Hand Safety Toolbox Talk in 10 Minutes

Most people don't have an hour for hand safety, so the goal is to do something in 10 minutes. I say it’s still worth doing: regular training has been linked to about a 42% drop in injury claims, and younger workers, 16 to 24, get hurt roughly twice as often as older coworkers. A short, focused hand safety toolbox talk gives those newer hands repeated practice spotting hand hazards, choosing the right hand protection PPE, and knowing when gloves are the wrong choice around certain machines, instead of leaving that all to trial and error.

A straightforward structure is usually enough:

• one real incident or near miss
• one hand hazard to focus on
• one glove or control to highlight
• one clear action for today

NIOSH’s FACE (Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation) reports are useful source material here because they offer short, plain incident stories involving machinery and tools that can easily be retold as openers for your hand safety toolbox talk.

Below is a mini script a supervisor can adapt. Swap in your own machines, jobs, and gloves.

The thing is, no standard, no glove, no checklist can account for every single movement of a human hand on the job. That’s why OSHA leaves room for some judgment, and that's where hand protection succeeds or fails: in the small choices people make while actually working. As tools, materials, and work methods change, the question stays the same: does the protection still fit what your hands are actually doing? Answering that question consistently is where safer hands come from.

FAQs

What do textile gloves protect against?

Basic cotton or polyester gloves are hardly any protection against severe abrasions and are good for grip. Theyre not cut-resistant, chemical-resistant, or heat-resistant. Only use them for super light-duty tasks where contamination or minor scrapes are the concern.

What type of gloves protects your hands from hazardous chemicals?

Chemical-resistant gloves made from nitrile, neoprene, butyl rubber, or laminated barrier materials protect against chemical burns and skin absorption. The specific glove material must be matched to the chemical using manufacturer permeation data. No single glove resists all chemicals.

What are the OSHA requirements for hand hygiene?

OSHA does not have a dedicated hand hygiene standard for general industry. However, bloodborne pathogen standards (1910.1030) require handwashing facilities after glove removal when handling potentially infectious materials. Construction standards reference sanitation. Good practice says: wash hands after removing gloves, especially chemical-resistant ones.

When should you wear rubber gloves according to OSHA?

That depends on the hazard. For electrical work, rubber insulating gloves are required per 1910.137 when employees work near exposed energized conductors. For chemical hazards, 1910.138 requires appropriate hand protection when handling corrosives or substances that could cause chemical burns or skin absorption (rubber-based materials like nitrile or neoprene may be appropriate depending on the chemical). The hand protection relative to task conditions determines the correct glove material.

Can workers bring their own gloves and still be compliant?

Yes, but the employer remains on the hook for verifying the workers' gloves meet the protection requirements for the hand hazards. If a worker's personal gloves are inadequate, the employer must provide compliant alternatives at no cost per 1910.132(h) and 1926.95(d).

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