# Why no gloves in autopsy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 2, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gloves-in-autopsy/587656 "2011-07-02T20:01:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dingbang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@Dingbang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dingbang)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gloves-in-autopsy/587656/1 "2011-07-02T20:01:39Z")
I was watching “Frontline” on PBS, an episode about medical examiners testifying in child murder cases. They showed a shot of a medical examiner’s work area, where they examine the bodies, and there was a prominent red sign on the entrance door that said “Bare hands only. No gloves.” Why would that be? I can see that there’s no danger of infection to the deceased, but how does the use of gloves compromise their work? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gloves-in-autopsy/587656/2 "2011-07-02T21:12:00Z")
It’s probably referring to the door itself. I’ve seen similar signs in nearly every lab I’ve been in. It’s a reminder to not handle doorknobs, or plates, or whatever, with potentially contaminated gloves. Dirty gloves stay in the lab; you don’t use them to open doors, which could later be opened by bare hands. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gloves-in-autopsy/587656/3 "2011-07-02T22:09:02Z")
I agree that this is a warning not to touch the door with gloves; I’ve also seen signs like this in labs, they’re also typically posted by the telephone. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2011, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gloves-in-autopsy/587656/4 "2011-07-03T02:41:08Z")
Ref our many threads about the pointlessness of quick-food workers wearing the same gloves to assemble sandwiches and operate the cash register & handle the money or credit cards. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2011, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gloves-in-autopsy/587656/5 "2011-07-03T02:50:44Z")
There’s a slight difference between cash registers and potentially infectious pathogenic samples. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2011, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gloves-in-autopsy/587656/6 "2011-07-03T03:59:12Z")
That’s actually the third rule of pathology club… ---
**Author:** ![SuperAbe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@SuperAbe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperAbe)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2011, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gloves-in-autopsy/587656/7 "2011-07-03T04:41:00Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > There’s a slight difference between cash registers and potentially infectious pathogenic samples. That turns out [not to be precisely true](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20084997)… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2011, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gloves-in-autopsy/587656/8 "2011-07-03T12:42:46Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > There’s a slight difference between cash registers and potentially infectious pathogenic samples. Granted. But the underlying \*idea \*is exactly the same: Prevent cross contamination between areas which are known to be “dirty” and areas which are supposed to remain “clean”. And as \*\*SuperAbe \*\* (cool name BTW) points out, pathogens grow just fine on money. And on mayo-smeared keypads which are never effectively cleaned. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2011, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gloves-in-autopsy/587656/9 "2011-07-03T15:30:16Z")
Ideally, one should dispose of contaminated gloves (not an expensive item, unless one is using those chain-mail gloves to protect from punctures) and wash up before leaving the autopsy suite. Maybe some facilities that do post-mortems are set up in such a way that one might need to exit an autopsy briefly to talk to someone in an outer office, but that likely reflects poor design or practices. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2011, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gloves-in-autopsy/587656/10 "2011-07-03T15:52:26Z")
The photocopy rooms at work (pharma) sport similar signs. In a similar vein, there are signs on the doors leading towards the cafeteria that say “no lab coats allowed beyond this point” Many years ago I remember seeing the cafeteria loaded with white-coated scientists, and never thought twice about it. Then they tightened up the rules and posted those signs. Folks who work in scrubs were the opposite: they were required to cover up their scrubs with lab coats to go to lunch, and they were provided with brown lab coats to distinguish them from those forbidden white lab coats. ---
**Author:** ![Dingbang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@Dingbang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dingbang)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2011, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gloves-in-autopsy/587656/11 "2011-07-03T19:36:58Z")
Ah, the door explanation makes perfect sense. Thanks.