If you’re new to gardening, you may be wondering if you need to wear gloves.
Is it safe to garden without gloves? Can you get dirty? I’m sure at one point or another you’ve heard that you’re not supposed to garden without gloves. But is it true?
What are the potential dangers of gardening without gloves?
Maybe you’re worried about getting dirty or having some infection.
After all, there are many germs on garden tools and flowers.
Here Is A Summary Of Gardening Without Gloves:
It is safe to garden without gloves if you are not pregnant and do not have a weak immune system. You can also garden without gloves if you are not working with chemicals and are not handling poisonous or allergic plants.
Avoid Gardening With Bare Hands While You Are Pregnant
There are many benefits to taking care of your cat, but there’s one major drawback.
Cats are the only animal that sheds their toxoplasmosis in their feces.
For example, suppose you are a pregnant mom and contract toxoplasmosis during pregnancy.
Your baby can be born blind or with mental illness like dementia in later years because their immune systems are too weak.
They were born due to this infection passed from mother to child.
Wear gloves when gardening or touching dirt, soil, and other substances that could be confused for a latrine by your neighbor’s cat.
Wash hands thoroughly with soap after activities such as these so you don’t pass along any illness to unborn babies growing inside of them.
There are ways around this danger, like getting tested before becoming pregnant.
You’ll have antibodies in your system if you are infected previously.
Risk Of Legionnaires And Tetanus
Legionnaires, a type of pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria, can occur when people breathe in droplets while working with soil or compost products.
The elderly or those with a weak immune system, when working with soil, may be at risk of getting sick as their bodies don’t fight back against the infection as they typically do.
While gardening, it is vital to wear a dust mask and use a pair of gloves when opening bags of potting mix materials.
It will help avoid inhaling any particles that might get in contact and it is also wise not to open the package with sharp knives.
Instead, use scissors carefully and direct them away from your face while doing this.
If possible, avoid working inside enclosed areas since these places may aggregate bacteria more quickly than outdoors, where greater ventilation is available.
Great soil is home to many organisms that can cause infection.
Still, one in particular – Clostridium tetani- causes Tetanus if it enters the body through a puncture wound or broken skin.
When working in a garden, it’s crucial to keep cuts, scratches, and grazes covered.
Ensure any injury is immediately clean so that you don’t get infected.
Working With Garden Chemicals (Example: Pesticides Or Herbicides)
When handing these chemicals without a glove, they can be absorbed through the skin and get into the body.
For example, suppose enough of these chemicals get into your skin.
In that case, they can cause health problems to other areas of your body, not just skin irritation.
It’s essential to wear gloves and a mask. Since both of these chemicals are corrosive and may be fatal if ingested, you should take extra precautions.
Make sure to read the safety label on your product before using it so that you know what you’re doing and how to do it safely.
There are different gloves for gardens available in stores and online outlets, including those made explicitly for using chemicals while protecting your skin from them.
Therefore, it is wise to look at the safety label on the back of a product before buying gloves for this purpose.
Wearing rubber gloves can be helpful when working with soils, composts, manure, and mulches since they help protect your hands from bacteria that grow in these substances.
However, you don’t want to risk getting sick since harmful organisms are inevitable when working outside with mud, dirt, water, and other garden substances.
Handling Poisonous Plants
It’s easy to get poisoned by plants!
There’s no way around the fact that some plant species are just plain bad for you and can cause anything from a mild rash, allergic reaction, or even worse: serious illness.
The best way to avoid any possible adverse reactions when handling plants is by wearing gloves.
Even if you think that a plant might not be harmful, it’s always a good practice if you are new to gardening without knowing what you are getting.
Gardening gloves are a great way to protect your hands when working with soil, tools, and other ingredients that can cause skin irritation or infection.
It is advisable to use cotton, latex, or rubber gloves if you have allergies.
It is also better to wear gloves made of leather if you are working with plants that may have thorns, needles, or sticky sap.
Benefits Of Gardening Without Gloves
While most people recommend wearing gloves when gardening, there are some benefits to working without them.
For example, the microbiota is the collection of microorganisms in a particular place; for example, your gut or skin houses good bacteria, which helps keep us healthy and robust.
When you wear gloves for gardening, you don’t get the benefits of some bacteria that can help.
The more you garden without gloves, the greater your exposure to various microbes that can help your body.
These soil-based organisms (SBOs) are natural strains of probiotics found in the gut and on your skin.
You will come into contact with them through our interactions with dirt.
References
- How to Safely Garden While Pregnant
- Here are five reasons to wear garden gloves – and there are plenty more
- Why You WANT Bacteria on Your Skin for a Healthy Microbiome
