Hand protection: which 5 standards are there?

Hand protection is a very important form of personal protection while working. Choosing the right hand protection helps to prevent damage to your skin and fingers. What should you pay attention to when choosing hand protection? First of all, 5 standards have been established for hand protection. These standards are established to ensure that work gloves meet certain requirements.

1. Standard EN 374: Protection against chemicals and micro-organisms

This standard focuses on the penetration and permeation of hazardous substances and acids. Penetration means that the glove may not leak and permeation indicates that the glove may not act like a sponge, otherwise the skin will still come into contact with the substance.

(Newer) Standard EN ISO 374-1:2016

2. Standard EN 388: protection against mechanical risks

EN 388 is the classification standard for protective work gloves based on their resistance to mechanical risks. Work gloves with the EN 388 standard protect against risks such as abrasion (A), cutting (B), tearing (C), perforation (D), cut resistance TDM test (E) and impact resistance (F). Each letter has its own performance level, with 4 or 5 being the best achievable (4 or 5 being the highest, depending on the category). These performances are indicated on all our gloves.

3. Standard EN 407: protection against thermal risks

This standard says something about the degree of protection of the hands against heat and/or fire. Here too, different letters apply to the icon that indicate how much the material can handle. For the protective effect of the work gloves, it is important whether it concerns ambient heat or direct contact with hot objects. Dangers can arise from contact with great heat, caused by combustion, radiation or in another way.

4. Standard EN 421: protection against radiation and radioactivity

For protection against radioactivity, a glove must be liquid-tight and pass the penetration test. To protect the hands against radiation, the glove must contain lead.

5. Standard EN 511: protection against cold

Gloves with the EN 511 standard protect against cold. Within this standard there are different performance categories: protection against conductive cold (A), protection against contact cold (B) and water permeability (C).