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High impact

13 August 2024

The US ANSI/ISEA 138-2019 hand protection impact standard is the most comprehensive in the world, yet many in the PPE industry are still unfamiliar with it. Eleanor Hirst provides a summary of ANSI/ISEA 138-2019 and why it’s so important.

AS ITS name suggests, the ANSI/ISEA 138-2019 standard has been around for five years. Despite this, many health and safety professionals still seem unfamiliar with it. Yet it’s important that everyone concerned with workplace health and safety understands it, because it’s the most comprehensive standard of its type in the world, going beyond even the equivalent European standard.

What is the ANSI/ISEA 138-2019 standard?

ANSI stands for the American National Standards Institute. The institute has an impact rating system for protective gloves which seeks to help companies protect employees in potentially hazardous environments from impact injuries. This could include getting fingers trapped between heavy machinery or having something heavy fall on the hand. 

The OEUK Health, Safety & Environment Report 2023 says that, "Bone fractures, strains/sprains and lacerations continue to account for the majority of accident outcomes, with hands and fingers being the most frequently injured parts of the body.”

In particularly high hazard sectors such as energy, infrastructure and oil and gas, hands and fingers are where the most injuries are occurring, so understanding how to mitigate those risks with correct hand protection is vital. 

Firstly, let’s quickly summarise the European EN388: 2016 standard. Last updated in 2018; EN388: 2016 + A1:2018 - it covers the test methods associated with mechanical hazards to the hand, including  abrasions, cuts, tears, punctures, and impact. 

When it comes to impact protection, all gloves subject to impact testing under this standard can either pass or fail. 

The EN388: 2016 impact test is carried out by dropping a striker with an impact energy of 5 joules primarily onto the knuckle area of the glove. Where the glove offers protection against impact at other areas, such as the back of hand, this is also tested.

To be considered a pass, the transmitted force through the glove needs to be less than or equal to 7 kilonewtons (kN) with no single result greater than 9 kN.

Now let’s compare the ANSI/ISEA 138-2019 standard. Published in 2019, this uses an almost identical impact test to the European standard, but it scores the results using a scale of 1-3 to classify impact resistance, with 1 being the lowest and 3 the highest. 

  • Level 1: allows an average of 9 or less kilonewtons (kN) of force through the glove. 
  • Level 2: allows an average of 6.5 or less kN of force through the glove.
  • Level 3: allows an average of 4 or less kN of force through the glove. 

So, under this standard, products don’t simply pass or fail. Instead, they can offer different levels of protection. As you will have noticed, the “Pass” rating for EN388: 2016 at 7 kN is equivalent to an ANSI level 1.

Why is it important to understand the ANSI/ISEA 138-2019 standard?

Everyone involved in manufacturing, distributing, and purchasing impact protection gloves has a vested interest in fully understanding the ANSI/ISEA 138-2019 standard, for several reasons. 

Firstly, it’s more detailed than the equivalent European standard. Using the ANSI system, it’s possible to know whether the protective gloves you distribute or buy can reduce the force of an impact transmitted to a wearer’s hand down to as little as 4 kN. It is simply not possible to know this using the EN388: 2016, which doesn’t record impact protection performance to the same extent. 

In other words, using only the EN388: 2016 standard, you wouldn’t be able to check if a glove offers the same high impact protection as a glove rated at ANSI level 3.  

The second reason why it’s important to understand the ANSI/ISEA 138-2019 standard is because the test itself is more comprehensive. Yes, it involves dropping a striker with an impact energy of 5 joules, just as with the EN388: 2016 impact test. The difference is that, while to pass the European test the glove is tested at a single impact point at the knuckle and any other areas claiming protection (excluding fingers) of four different gloves , , for the ANSI standard the test is carried out at 18 impact points over both the knuckles and fingers – across two gloves. 

This means that, even when looking for a glove that offers the same level of impact protection at around 7 – 6.5 kN of force, you can have more confidence in the glove rated ANSI level 2 than you can one rated as a Pass under EN388: 2016. The glove with the ANSI rated has been tested way more thoroughly. 

Why is the ANSI/ISEA 138-2019 standard so misunderstood?

So, the ANSI standard for impact protection is more thorough and more granular than the European equivalent. Why then is it not better understood by health and safety professionals? 

One reason is that it’s not simple to explain. Trying to explain impact protection standards accurately can make for dry content that’s not easily digested. At the same time, the ANSI and EN388 standards are not exactly comparable, leading to the need for multiple qualifications and sub-explanations. 

Another reason is recency. Although the ANSI standard has been around since 2019, this is fairly recent in industrial health and safety terms, where regulatory changes can take years to filter through. Even many US health and safety executives are not as familiar with the standard as they should be, primarily due to this relative recency and complexity. 

A third reason for European professionals to misunderstand the ANSI standard is greater familiarly with the existing EU standard. This is justifiable, since the EN388 standard has been around for three years longer, and the ANSI standard is not mandatory for European companies providing impact protection for hands, while EN388 is.  

Another common reason why many don’t fully understand the ANSI standard is because there are few impact protection gloves on the market which offer ANSI level three protection. This reflects a relative lack of demand, as level three protection is often perceived as being too bulky and impractical for any work that requires dexterity. 

Level three protection usually comes with thicker bumpers on the backs and fingers of gloves. Many wearers associate this increased thickness with more rapid hand fatigue and loss of grip strength over the course of a long shift. 

Simplifying the complex

In brief, the ANSI/ISEA 138-2019 standard is the rating system for impact protection issued by the American National Standards Institute. It exists to test and rate the level of protection offered by impact protection gloves. The test is more thorough than the equivalent for the European EN388:2016 standard, and its rating is more granular, being assessed on a three-part scale. 

Using the ANSI standard empowers PPE providers to supply impact protection gloves offering higher levels of protection that have been tested under more stringent conditions. Because most if not all glove manufacturers sell in Europe and North America, most impact protection gloves will carry both ratings, allowing buyers to compare. 

As more ANSI level three protection products enter the market, ANSI standards may be adopted globally. In the meantime, while the ANSI standard remains more comprehensive, it’s important to be aware of it, as it could be a useful sense check alongside the EN 388: 2016 standard when comparing new products.

Eleanor Hirst is marketing manager at Tilsatec Limited. For more information, visit www.tilsatec.com

 
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