Hand care – quite distinct from the equally important hand hygiene – is an essential requirement for healthcare professionals and for waste handlers alike.

Good standards of glove use and hand hygiene are essential skills for waste handlers. The correct gloves for the task, removed and stored appropriately, with good standards of hand hygiene after removal are key skills but are they being taught adequately, if at all?

In the waste sector, standards of glove use are universally poor. When gloves are removed, hands should be thoroughly washed and then dried properly. Excessive soap use and failure to dry hands thoroughly can result in deterioration of skin tone. Further exacerbated by glove use, leading eventually to dermatitis, this can lead to skin problems that are so severe that there is an increased risk of infection and for some, a need to change duties or even leave a job that requires glove use.

The increasing widespread use of liquid soaps is a convenience that allows better maintenance standards of wash basins and rest rooms etc. But these liquid soaps are a common cause of dermatitis, not through any inherent deficiency in their formulation, but in the method of use. When we wash our hands we wet them first before using bar soap. With liquid soaps, for some reason many users reverse that process and put concentrated liquid soap directly into dry skin before using water.

That reversal of order is is illogical. It risks dermatitis since the soap sticks hard to dry skin and is not completely removed once wetted. The residual soap damages skin and reduces tone, made worse by the later effect of extended glove use and the inevitable sweating that results in a moist, and thus increasingly susceptible, skin texture. Get it wrong, and ultimately your job, and your welfare, may be at risk.