Protective hand covering and dispenser apparatus

Abstract

A protective hand covering for adhering to the user's hand. Pressure-sensitive adhesive is applied to the back surface of a sheet of thin flexible film, which is shaped to cover a protected area of the users hand. The pressure-sensitive adhesive provides a sufficiently strong bond to prevent the hand covering from being inadvertently dislodged, but a sufficiently weak bond to allow the hand covering to be removed without injuring the user. The film is sufficiently impervious to contaminates to prevent the transfer of contaminates from the substance or object being handled to the user and vice versa.

Description

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 110,987, filed Jul. 7, 1998, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08 / 725,831, filed Oct. 7, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,889. The entire content of each application and patent are incorporate herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention is related to protective hand coverings and particularly to a protective hand covering formed from a sheet of thin flexible film backed by a pressure-sensitive adhesive. The adhesive allows the hand covering to be temporarily bonded to the user's hand during use. [0003] In many fields, such as the dental, medical, food service, laboratory, and precision manufacturing fields, reducing the potential for contamination is a primary concern. Because workers in these fields routinely manually handle contaminated or contaminatable materials, it is critical that some type of barr...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009] In view of the above and other limitations of the prior art, a primary object of the present invention is to provide a type of protective hand covering which may be easily and quickly put on and removed by the user. Instead of requiring the user to place their hand into a closed section of the hand covering and then position their hand with respect to the hand covering to obtain a proper fit, the inventive protective hand covering is put on simply by bringing an open hand into contact with the pressure-sensitive adhesive on the back surface of the thin flexible film. If the hand is properly positioned with respect to the inventive protective hand covering as it is brought into contact with the pressure-sensitive adhesive, no repositioning of their hand with respect to the hand covering is required to obtain a proper fit. By substantially decreasing the time it takes to remove and put on hand coverings, the time required to perform certain types of procedures can be dramatically reduced. Increasing the ease of putting on and removing hand coverings will also encourage workers to put on new hand coverings more frequently, which will in turn reduce the likelihood of indirect contamination. Because the inventive protective hand covering may be put on in only a second or two, new hand coverings can be put on for each patient even when every second is crucial.

[0010] A further object is to provide a protective hand covering which may be placed directly over other hand coverings, including conventional latex gloves or the present inventive protective hand coverings, already on the hand of the user. This will allow a user already wearing a contaminated hand covering to put on the inventive hand covering and handle an object without contaminating it and without taking the time required to remove the existing contaminated hand covering. As such, the present invention is beneficial where a health care worker must operate treatment equipment after their existing hand covering has been contaminated. To avoid contaminating the equipment, the worker can place the inventive hand covering over their existing hand covering and operate the treatment equipment without concern.

[0011] The inventive hand covering may also reduce the total number of hand coverings needed for certain procedures. If the worker described above again needs to come into contact with the patient, the now contaminated inventive hand covering may simply be removed. Because the inventive hand covering prevented the existing hand covering from being contaminated by contact with the equipment, the existing hand covering would generally not be removed and replaced before the worker again comes into contact with the patient.

[0012] The inventive hand covering is also fabricated from substantially less material than a conventional hand covering and this results in less waste being generated when the hand covering is disposed of. This reduction waste quantity will result in cost savings compared to the cost of disposing conventional hand coverings.

Problems solved by technology

Even before AIDS was a concern, however, the presence of other highly contagious infectious agents, such as hepatitis, justifiably caused serious concerns among health care workers and resulted in procedures and precautions being implemented for reducing this possible route of contamination.

Some types of computer and electrical components, such as disk drive storage media and halogen light bulbs, can be ruined by being merely touched with an unprotected hand.

Laboratory samples and crime scene evidence are two other types of materials that can easily be contaminated if proper protective hand coverings are not worn.

This third route is often the most difficult to control because the contamination may be indirect (i.e., it may not be directly from the earlier object to the worker to the later object).

What may be overlooked, however, is that when their gloves become contaminated during examination or treatment of a patient, any object touched by these gloves, such as a door handle, a pen, a drawer handle, or treatment equipment, may itself become contaminated.

Remedial measures, such as applying cleaning or sterilizing agents, are typically less than completely effective in eliminating contamination.

Similar issues arise when industrial or laboratory workers handle toxic, hazardous or contaminated materials.

A primary reason these areas become contaminated is the difficulty of removing and putting on typical hand coverings.

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