If you are asking what type of gloves protect your hands from hazardous chemicals, the first thing to understand is that there is no glove that protects you from all of them. Chemical protection is always specific to the chemical, the concentration and how long you are in contact with it. For lab and chemical handling we stock heavy duty nitrile gloves for chemical work, but the glove is the last step, not the first.
The first step is the safety data sheet. Every time.
Start with the SDS, not the glove
Every hazardous chemical sold in Australia comes with a safety data sheet, and section 8 covers personal protective equipment. It will tell you what glove material the manufacturer considers suitable for that specific product.
This matters because material performance is not intuitive. A glove that handles one solvent well can degrade quickly in another that seems similar. Nitrile is a good general-purpose choice for oils, greases and many common workshop chemicals, and it is a poor choice for some others. The SDS is the only source that is specific to what is actually in your hand.
Safe Work Australia publishes the model code of practice for managing risks of hazardous chemicals, which sets out how PPE fits into the wider control hierarchy: safeworkaustralia.gov.au.
How chemical resistance is actually rated
The international standard for chemical protective gloves is EN ISO 374. It is worth understanding in outline because it explains why a single "chemical resistant" label on a box means very little on its own.
Testing under that standard looks at two different things:
- Penetration — whether the chemical gets through a hole, a seam or a pinhole. This is a physical integrity test.
- Permeation — whether the chemical passes through the intact material itself at a molecular level, and how long that takes. This is the one people miss.
Permeation is measured as a breakthrough time against specific named test chemicals. A glove is rated against those chemicals, not against chemicals in general. So "tested to EN ISO 374" is only a useful statement when you also know which chemicals it was tested against and what the breakthrough time was.
That is why we do not make chemical-resistance claims for Grip-X. It is a heavy-duty workshop glove built for oil, grease and mechanical work — it is not sold as chemical protective equipment, and pretending otherwise would be the sort of claim that gets someone hurt.
The honest limits of a disposable glove
A disposable nitrile glove is designed for incidental contact and splash, and to be thrown away immediately afterwards. That is the job it does well.
It is not designed for:
- Immersion — hands in a bath or parts washer for any length of time.
- Prolonged contact with a solvent, where breakthrough time matters more than the surface.
- Reuse. Once a disposable has been in contact with a hazardous chemical, it goes in the bin.
- Being the only control. PPE sits at the bottom of the hierarchy — substitution, engineering controls and ventilation come first.
If your work involves sustained immersion or an aggressive solvent, you want a reusable chemical-protective gauntlet selected against the SDS, not a disposable. I would rather tell you that than sell you the wrong box.
Where ChemTough fits
ChemTough Green is the glove in our range built for laboratory and chemical handling rather than general workshop work. It is nitrile, latex-free, powder-free, comes 100 to a box in S through XL, and it is chemo tested.
"Chemo tested" is a specific thing and worth being precise about: it refers to testing for handling cytotoxic drugs, which is a laboratory and healthcare context. It is not a general statement that the glove resists every chemical. Check your SDS and match it to the test data for the specific substance you are handling.
Choosing, in order
| Step | What you do |
|---|---|
| 1 | Read section 8 of the SDS for the actual product. |
| 2 | Can you remove or substitute the chemical, or control it by ventilation or enclosure? Do that first. |
| 3 | Decide contact type: splash and incidental, or immersion and prolonged. |
| 4 | Splash and incidental → a suitable disposable, changed immediately on contact. |
| 5 | Immersion or prolonged → a reusable chemical-protective glove chosen against breakthrough data. |
| 6 | Train people to remove gloves without touching the outside, and to bin them. |
What nitrile is genuinely good at
None of the above means nitrile is weak. For the everyday reality of a workshop — engine oil, grease, brake cleaner overspray, general grime — it is the right material and a considerable step up from vinyl. It is also latex-free, which removes allergy from the conversation entirely, and there is more on that side of it in are nitrile gloves safe.
If your question is really about oil and mechanical work rather than hazardous chemicals, the best gloves for mechanics is the more useful read, and nitrile against latex and vinyl covers the material comparison.
Practical habits that matter more than the box you buy
Four things I would put in front of any glove decision, because they change outcomes more than the material does.
Remove gloves without touching the outside. Pinch the cuff of the first glove, peel it off inside out, hold it in the gloved hand, then slide a finger under the second cuff and peel that one off over the first. Bin both. Most contamination happens at removal.
Change immediately on known contact. Not at the end of the task. Permeation happens through intact material and you will not see it.
Never reuse a disposable that has been in contact with a hazardous chemical. It is a disposable. That is the whole design.
Get the fit right. A glove that is too tight is more likely to split at the knuckle, and a split glove is no barrier at all. If you are unsure, the sizing guide takes two minutes, and our full nitrile range publishes a palm width for every size.
Frequently asked questions
What gloves protect against hazardous chemicals?
Whichever glove the safety data sheet for that specific chemical says is suitable. There is no universal chemical glove. Material, thickness, contact time and concentration all change the answer.
Are nitrile gloves chemical resistant?
Nitrile resists some chemicals well and others poorly. A disposable nitrile glove is appropriate for incidental contact and splash with chemicals the SDS lists it as suitable for. It is not appropriate for immersion or prolonged solvent contact.
What does EN ISO 374 actually mean?
It is the standard covering chemical protective gloves, testing both penetration and permeation. Permeation is measured as a breakthrough time against specific named chemicals, so the rating only tells you something if you know which chemicals were tested.
How often should I change gloves when handling chemicals?
Immediately on any known contact, and otherwise at the interval your risk assessment sets. Do not wait for a visible problem — permeation happens through intact material and you will not see it.
Is a thicker glove always more protective?
Not necessarily. Thickness helps with physical damage, but permeation resistance is about the material and the specific chemical, not just how much of it there is. Use the breakthrough data rather than assuming.