This document provides the principles that govern the development of incident type and/or hazard specific test methods and minimum performance requirements for protective gloves for firefighters while engaged in specific rescue activities.

Gloves related to specific specialist rescue activities, such as road traffic crash (RTC) and urban search and rescue (USAR), are documented in individual subclauses of this document.

NOTE Further guidance can be found in ISO 18639-1.

The purpose of this document is to ensure that minimum performance requirements for incident type and/or hazard specific protective gloves are designated.

This document deals with "rescue from emergencies involving modes of transportation" in particular performance requirements for personal protective equipment (PPE) intended to be used by firefighters, primarily but not solely to protect against hazard exposure at non fire rescue activities involving road traffic crash (RTC) or motor vehicle accidents (MVA).

This document covers general glove design, the minimum performance level of the materials used and the methods of test for determining this performance level.

This document does not cover special gloves for use in other high risk situations such as firefighting.

This document does not cover protection for the head, torso, arms, legs and feet. These are covered in other parts of the ISO 18639 series. It does not cover protection of the hands against other hazards, e.g. chemical, biological, radiation and electrical hazards, except for limited, accidental exposure to fire ground chemicals and blood or body fluids.

Selection of the appropriate system of personal protective equipment (PPE), including gloves, is dependent on carrying out an effective risk assessment which identifies the hazard to be faced, evaluates the likelihood of those hazards and provides the means of reducing or eliminating these hazards.