Nitrile and latex gloves may cause overestimation of microplastics

Post by crazygringo » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 1:36 AM UTC

oasisaimlessly wrote: post #237

crazygringo wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, they don't require gloves to be replaced in those situations because there isn't a good safety reason to. There's zero reason to replace your gloves when switching from dicing green peppers for a salad to picking up raw chicken. Or similarly between customers if you're just handling food, and not a cash register or anything. It's not like you're touching the customers ...

> There's zero reason to replace your gloves when switching from dicing green peppers for a salad to picking up raw chicken. Typo?

Post by 0xffff2 » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 1:54 AM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #234

ceejayoz wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do a medical procedure several times a week that requires gloves. If you don't flap your hands around for 30+ seconds, any remaining moisture from handwashing (or sweat) makes them stick to your skin and you wind up fighting them (and about half the time, ripping a hole). A towel is not enough.

I variously use nitrile, vinyl, and poly gloves when cooking messy things at home in bulk, like chicken, bacon, etc. I regularly pull them off to do something and then throw a new pair back on. They can be kinda sweaty and it's... fine. Zero problem whatsoever sliding on a new pair. I'm not doubting your personal experience. I'm just saying it's in no way a universal rule. I'm sure experiences will be different depen…

Post by queenkjuul » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 2:26 AM UTC

sophrosyne42 wrote: post #211

eigenspace wrote: post #163

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So, I think that while it's true that we haven't really demonstrated any tangible harms of microplastics, and there is a lot of alarmism around it, I think the concern is more rational than it might appear. If it's true that microplastics are everywhere and in everything (which maybe that's now not actually the case), even a very small chance that there's some serious harm we're not aware of should be taken extremely…

I agree very strongly with intellectual humility. I just wish the microplastic fear mongerers would also take that lesson.

Post by queenkjuul » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 2:33 AM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #119

cogman10 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funnily, I believe the glove mandates for food prep are actually anti-hygiene. Unlike bare skin, you can't really feel when your gloves are contaminated. So you are less likely to replace gloves when you should. With bare hands, you can feel the raw chicken juices on you, so it's pretty natural to want to wash your hands right after handling the raw chicken. Gloves are important in medicine, but that's with proper us…

> So you are less likely to replace gloves when you should. To the contrary. You take off and throw out your gloves every time you finish doing something with raw meat. It's procedure. It's habit. You're never relying on "feel" to determine whether there are "raw chicken juices on you". Using "feel" is not reliable. I don't know why you think food service workers aren't constantly putting on new gloves, but doctors a…

Post by idiotsecant » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 3:01 AM UTC

Der_Einzige wrote: post #153

idiotsecant wrote: post #109

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Luckily HN software developers, the foremost authority on literally every subject imaginable, are here to bless the world with their insights.

You joke, but given that SWE/AI researchers literally invented AI that does everything else for them and is often super-human at intelligence across most things, I would unironically prefer the opinion of the creator of such a system over most others for most things.