What is the purpose of wearing gloves in the laboratory?

Wearing gloves in the laboratory primarily serves the purpose of ensuring personal safety and sample integrity. When working with potentially hazardous materials, such as chemicals, biological specimens, or infectious agents, gloves act as a barrier protecting the skin from contact with these substances, thereby reducing the risk of contamination and injury. Furthermore, gloves also help maintain the integrity of samples by preventing contamination from the handler’s skin or other sources, which is crucial in laboratory settings where precision and accuracy are vital.

While professionalism, cleanliness, and dexterity may have some relevance in a laboratory environment, they do not capture the primary and essential roles that gloves play in safeguarding the health of the laboratory personnel and preserving the quality of experimental samples. Therefore, the focus on personal safety and sample integrity highlights the critical reasons for glove usage in a lab setting.