Development and Evaluation of Protective Gloves for Rose Farmers

Abstract

This study was undertaken to develop protective gloves for rose farmers who work on thorny plant in Korea. Prototype of protective gloves was designed and evaluated in terms of thermal comfort and mobility. Gloves were made with arm protectors attached to them, so that they could protect the lower part of arms, and rubber bands were inserted into the arm protectors for them not to slip down. The bending part of each finger was punched in order to give ventilation. Also, the bending parts of the fingers in the upper and lower part of gloves were inserted with sponges and were stitched together in order to enhance gripping movement. According to compared evaluation of the developed gloves and the existing gloves, temperature inside the gloves didn't show any significant differences, but humidity inside the gloves showed significant differences. There were significant differences in terms of comparison of objective mobility, that is, pegboard run-time and grip power, from statistical aspects. In addition, a comparison of subjective discomfort showed significant differences and so the suitability of developed gloves was proved.

Development and Evaluation of Protective Clothing for Rose Farmers

“…To compare the protective clothing developed in this study with the existing working clothes, the subjects were asked to wear kitchen rubber gloves on top of cotton gloves with existing working clothes, such as a general purpose jumper, a similar type of working clothes worn by current farmers while cutting roses. They were also asked to wear gloves developed for rose farmers by Chae et al (2012) with the experimental garment. <Table 2> lists the combination of experimental clothing and sizes except for gloves.…”

“…6). Although an apron was the second preferred in the survey for farmers, this study selected it for the type of protective clothing because the gloves for thorn pricking were already developed by Chae et al (2012). To reduce the burden of the sequence in a greenhouse, the experim- ental apron selected had a strap as the closure method to open the back of the body as much as possible and a buckle was used to adjust the length.…”

“…Moreover, as cultivation in greenhouses increase sharply, studies of the development of greenhouse working clothes (Myung et al, 1993) and the development of cooling vests (Choi et al, 2005a) to protect workers from hot and humid environments within the workplace have been conducted. The development of agricultural working clothes for workers dealing with thorns focused mainly on the production of protective gloves for rose farmers (Chae et al, 2012).…”