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An exam glove is used by healthcare professionals to conduct examinations without contaminating the sample or patient as well as themselves. Most such exam gloves used to be produced out of rubber latex, but the possibility of allergic reactions has made the likes of neoprene and nitrile, the materials of choice for numerous modern medical exam glove. It’s almost impossible to tell them apart at first glance, yet each presents its own unique characteristics that make some people prefer one over the other.

The typical exam glove nowadays is made of synthetic rubber that tends to cost much more than organic latex alternatives, a concern in these recessionary times when even well-known hospitals like Saint Vincent’s in the Bronx, New York can shutter due to financial difficulties.

In addition, something like nitrile rubber has inferior strength and flexibility when compared to natural rubber, though it is more resistant to oils and acids. Neoprene, on the other hand, resists burning much better and will frequently be found inside the weather stripping applied to fire doors as well as inside the examination gloves of a healthcare provider.

Exam gloves were first instituted with William Stewart Halsted’s 1890 practice of using rubber gloves that protect medical workers from skin exposure to carbolic acid, a necessary sterilizing agent. Carbolic acid, or phenol, was adopted originally by Sir Joseph Lister for use in antiseptic surgery, but skin discomfort lead to the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company’s invention of a rubber glove that could withstand the organic compound.

Interestingly, latex gloves are still much preferred in surgery these days mainly because of the fine control and greater sensitivity they provide. The one exception to this fact is the polyisoprene glove, but these are more than twice as expensive as their organic latex counterparts, and as mentioned previously, hospitals have now become really cost-sensitive environments.

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