Developing Stories: Making Nitrile Gloves

Making Nitrile Gloves
Church Rock, New Mexico, Navajo Nation, March 25, 2020

Rhino Health employee Nizhoni Long (left) and her coworkers produce medical-grade nitrile gloves. Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, the company has been making 8,000 gloves an hour. The pandemic caused a nationwide shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE). This forced health care workers and first responders, including police officers and emergency medical technicians, to reuse their PPE while combatting the virus. Rhino Health was regularly backlogged three to four weeks as it supplied the Navajo Nation, New York, New Mexico, New Jersey, and Wisconsin with gloves.