Protective gloves on manual sugar cane cutting are really effective?

Abstract

Problems related to the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), specially the use of protective gloves for the manual sugar cane cutting, motivated this research, made possible by a tripartite negotiation involving the Ministry of Labor, the Union of Rural Workers and the Employer’s Association of sugarcane agribusiness. The main objective was to evaluate, from an ergonomics perspective, the impact of use of the gloves during the manual cane sugar cutting, raising questions on safety, effectiveness and comfort. The research was carried in a sugarcane industry of São Paulo for two seasons involving 47 workers who made a qualitative analysis of acceptance of four models of protective gloves. The methodology included the use of semi-structured interviews, questionnaires and field observations and the experimental determination of the coefficient of static friction developed between the gloves and the surfaces of the machete handle. The main results indicate the general inadequacy of the gloves currently used forcing the employees to improvise. Workers found the glove of leather and nylon scraping the best reported for comfort in use. The overall results highlight the problem of detachment of test standards for the manufacture of PPE, ignoring users and the activity to be performed.