Chemistry

Mostly disagree with your new dept here. It's true that, if everyone had perfect technique, perfect eyes, perfect sense of touch, perfect decision making, and perfect reaction speed, PPE would be a lot less important. But people don't, and reducing chemical exposure purely to a skill issue is nonsensical and hubristic. Accidents happen, and by definition there is always some unknown component of R&D that might manifest as splashes, loss of containment, etc, which gloves (and labcoats and goggles) may protect against. Furthermore, it's not just about one person's skills; without gloves, one must rely on labmates' collective hygiene and that there are no spilled residues on the outsides of the chemical containers.

To the point that gloves are ineffective: then the wrong gloves are being used. Glove manufacturers provide compatibilty charts, and SDSs give glove recommendations for more niche chemicals. Nitrile has okay enough compatibility to be the default, but chemical labs should stock other commonly needed kinds.

To the point that gloves reduce one's sense of touch, I think the decrease is minimal for standard-issue nitrile, though agree for thicker varieties like butyl which reduce dexterity.

To the point that gloves prevent one from noticing chemical exposure, again I disagree. Splash contact for solvents on gloves is pretty noticeable, though different from uncovered skin, and I find it much easier to see chemical residues against the clean monochrome of the gloves. As you mentioned, contaminated gloves should be removed ASAP to guard against breakthrough; without gloves, there is no breakthrough period, just immediate contamination of the skin.

Finally, gloves may protect you from chemicals, but they also protect the samples from you. Skin oils or microorganisms can cause issues, though I have found this more problematic for bio than chemistry.

I never thought of it. My bachelors is in microbiology and I worked a bit in blood diagnostics and the gloves are also to keep from contaminating things so you definitely use them with that.

Depends on what I'm working with, and the scale/volumes. They exist for a reason.

Its unnecessarily dangerous to not wear nitrile gloves. This is the same rationale as seatbelts are less safe because they give you a false sense of security. PPE is not meant to be there to protect you as part of day to day operations but in case of accidents which like... obviously will happen. There's also the hazard of repeated exposure.

I will further posit that anyone being less careful/safe because they aren't wearing gloves will also be less careful/safe without them and likely the folks that need to be wearing them as policy to begin with

It depends. In my experience: in an academic laboratory I have been able to use common sense.

For example, gloves go on when working with strong acids/bases. The statement:

gloves apparently only give researchers a false sense of security that can dull the sense of touch and prevent you from recognizing chemical exposure

Does not apply as much when you are working with such corrosive agents, because you really should never be in a position where spilling 4 M HCl into your hands would go unnoticed.

When working with large quantitites of oils, even if non-hazardous, gloves go on and they will probably get oil in them.

When working with cell cultures, the goal is often to not contaminate the cultures. Some people prefer to wash their hands thoroughly and not use gloves, and they have been working at it for many years and they seem to do just fine. It's a risk mitigation strategy - if the cultures have antibiotics and fungicides, risk is already not too high.

In an industry setting it is different. Companies often comply with specific standards and health and safety regulations. While the individual can use common sense, the people in charge of ascertaining compliance (sometimes 'EHS', Environment, health and safety personnel) aren't necessarily chemists themselves, nor should they need to be aware of the identity of the transparent liquid in the flask that you are holding. So, generic rules are often set in place not only because of their practical utility but also to simplify enforcement. In some cases external auditors can come in (announced or not) and verify compliance - this, again is much simpler when the rule is 'lab coat behind yellow line, gloves always on when touching a container with a liquid' than having to interview each person to understand what they were touching without gloves and to understand their philosophy of why they chose to do so.

Nah, you should never wear gloves blindly, but fit them to type of hazards. There are published tables, preferably, use ones from your safety authority and ones from glove manufacturer. Misusing gloves is indeed a serious violation of safety codes and a hazard.

There is also anti-industrial common sense stance, but you wouldn't be asking this question if you respected that.