Gloves are unnecessary for most routine healthcare interactions and are usually not needed unless there is anticipated contact with blood, body fluids, secretions and excretions, mucous membranes, draining wounds or non-intact skin. A group in the UK calculated that on average, 107 non-sterile gloves are used per patient per day in the ICU, representing an excessive amount of unnecessary waste. With the carbon footprint of a single glove estimated to be 0.026kgCO2, that equates to 2.7kgCO2e per day (13.5km by car).
Sources:
Jeffries SD, Tu Z, Xu H, Harutyunyan R, Hemmerling TM. Use of hand sanitiser as a potential substitution for nonsterile gloves in reducing carbon emissions. British Journal of Anaesthesia. 2023;131(1):e22-e5. PMID: 37149477.
Infection Prevention and Control (World Health Organization). Glove Use Information Leaflet 2009.
Canada’s Drug and Health Technology Agency (2023). CADTH Health Technology Review: Non-sterile glove use.
Hunfeld N, Diehl JC, Timmermann M, van Exter P, Bouwens J, Browne-Wilkinson S, et al. Circular material flow in the intensive care unit—environmental effects and identification of hotspots. Intensive Care Medicine. 2023;49(1):65-74. PMID: 36480046.
Rizan C, Reed M, Bhutta MF. Environmental impact of personal protective equipment distributed for use by health and social care services in England in the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic. J R Soc Med. 2021 May;114(5):250-263. PMID: 33726611.