# Food service workers wearing gloves - evidence of benefit? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 28, 2010, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-service-workers-wearing-gloves-evidence-of-benefit/544799 "2010-06-28T16:33:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Oly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oly/32/8255_2.png) [@Oly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oly)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-service-workers-wearing-gloves-evidence-of-benefit/544799/21 "2010-06-30T01:49:06Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > To answer the first question: there’s a suspension of critical thinking involved in folk beliefs, like the suspension of disbelief in literature / film. Something that appears silly on the surface breaks that suspension. Something that appears sensible on the surface does not. I like the cut of your jib! Can you recommend me some further reading about this angle on folk beliefs? ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-service-workers-wearing-gloves-evidence-of-benefit/544799/22 "2010-06-30T01:53:02Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Well, I’ve been using that bit for about 15 years now. Maybe the right person heard it and got the procedure changed. Well, then. Now I know who to thank! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Oly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oly/32/8255_2.png) [@Oly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oly)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-service-workers-wearing-gloves-evidence-of-benefit/544799/23 "2010-06-30T03:38:57Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Well, I’ve been using that bit for about 15 years now. Maybe the right person heard it and got the procedure changed. I totally suspended my critical thinking about actual donut shop procedure and saw it as you called it. And the way you called it was true, a propos and hilarious!!! Well done! ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-service-workers-wearing-gloves-evidence-of-benefit/544799/24 "2010-06-30T03:47:27Z")
🙂 ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-service-workers-wearing-gloves-evidence-of-benefit/544799/25 "2010-06-30T04:20:28Z")
My food-handler refresher course is on Thursday. I don’t think I’ll mention this thread. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-service-workers-wearing-gloves-evidence-of-benefit/544799/26 "2010-06-30T05:33:05Z")
> [@rjk](#): > > My food-handler refresher course is on Thursday. I don’t think I’ll mention this thread. Ask them after the test. They may know the answer. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-service-workers-wearing-gloves-evidence-of-benefit/544799/27 "2010-06-30T08:01:46Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > This relies on the assumptions that workers are more prone to put on a pair of gloves than repeatedly wash their hands (easier, more comfortable) and that gloves are relatively impermeable to pathogens (even with relatively improper put-on techniques they are more effective than cursory hand-washing). I wouldn’t say that working with gloves is either easier or more comfortable: my hands will sweat like nobody’s business in the gloves. Also, I have tiny hands, and in most of the labs where I’ve worked, getting them to buy S was an uphill battle. There were some where they’d buy set amounts of boxes and wouldn’t buy Ss until everything else had run out. Handling slides with L gloves on your S hands doesn’t work well. I’ve heard similar complaints in supermarkets, including seeing a butcher buy her own gloves (from the supermarket itself) saying “at least here we carry these and I can buy them, most other places I’d be SOL once the boxes ran out”. Since she was getting a couple of packs and not a big box, I imagine she didn’t intend to change them every time. But for a manager, it’s easier to implement “food handlers must wear gloves at all times” (just walk around and see whether they are or are not) than something like “food handlers must change their gloves/wash their hands after handling anything - and yes, that means several hundred times a day”. It’s like presentism, where being at work is what’s valued, not working. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-service-workers-wearing-gloves-evidence-of-benefit/544799/28 "2010-06-30T18:54:00Z")
As **Nava** says, working with gloves isn’t necessarily easy or comfortable. My hands also sweat, and they need to be perfectly dry to get new gloves on. Even then, the cheap ones we get sometimes tear or burst between the fingers if you try moving your hands. **needscoffee** , I’ll ask for a cite on the benefits of gloves, if I think of it. After the test for sure. The ‘course’ consists of watching a movie about filth. (Anybody remember _Reefer Madness_? I hear this one is better.) Maybe we’ll get the instructor reading the checklist again. Then we have a multiple-choice test. (Last time we got to check the handout for anything we didn’t remember.) Then anybody who was awake at any point during the course gets their card. One cow-orker says he will ask to take the test first. He’ll probably ace it. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2010, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-service-workers-wearing-gloves-evidence-of-benefit/544799/29 "2010-07-05T04:15:23Z")
Sorry I didn’t get back sooner. I asked the instructor for a cite, but she had no idea. All she could say is that it looks good for the customers, as mentioned above. She says we have our own corporate health inspector, so I’ll see if I can find out more this week. ---
**Author:** ![meflin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@meflin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meflin)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2010, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-service-workers-wearing-gloves-evidence-of-benefit/544799/30 "2010-07-05T13:28:42Z")
There is a small bit of evidence that gloves as they are used do not help. > **[A preliminary evaluation of the effect of glove use by food handlers in fast...](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15690825/)** > > A study was conducted to determine whether the levels of selected microorganisms differed on foods handled by gloved and bare hands at fast food restaurants. Three hundred seventy-one plain flour tortillas were purchased from fast food restaurants... Found via [http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu](http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu) Meflin [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-service-workers-wearing-gloves-evidence-of-benefit/544799.md?page=1)