Nitrile Gloves

Waiver Rationale Summary

The current market for U.S. manufactured nitrile gloves is not able to meet the Department’s need. Specifically, 4 MIL and 5 MIL nitrile gloves meeting DHS specifications and testing requirements are not grown, reprocessed, reused, or produced in the United States in a sufficient quantity to satisfy the entirety of the Department’s nitrile glove requirements. The availability of domestically produced NBR remains a challenge. As of December 2024, 25% of the TSA nitrile glove demand will be manufactured domestically by American Nitrile using NBR sourced from Italy and other TAA compliant trading partners of the United States. DHS has identified two other domestic manufacturers for 4 MIL and 5 MIL nitrile gloves (i.e., Nephron Nitrile and Safe Source). As of December 10, 2024, the Nephron Nitrile sample testing has not been completed by TSA. Testing is scheduled to begin late December/early January. TSA advised that testing has not been completed sooner due to other higher priority testing in the lab. Regarding Safe Source, the vendor was approved by TSA as a viable manufacturer on December 11, 2024. Over the next 30 - 60 days CABVI will work with Safe Source on finalizing details (i.e., packaging, pre-production samples, etc.) to bring in an initial batch of Safe Source gloves for distribution to select airports to monitor user feedback to avoid any end user concerns. After a 60-day monitoring period with no negative feedback, CABVI will expand distribution of Safe Source nitrile gloves. This will expand manufacturers of 4 MIL and 5MIL gloves to two domestic manufacturers. Given these activities, DHS anticipates the full demand for 4 MIL and 5 MIL nitrile gloves to be met by domestic manufacturers by December 2025. DHS has also identified two domestic manufacturers for 6 MIL gloves (i.e., Nephron Nitrile and American Nitrile). Nephron samples have been evaluated and reviewed, and the first delivery of 6 MIL nitrile gloves was completed in August 2024. Product went into circulation immediately after CABVI receipt and production of finished product. Gloves were deployed to the field, and DHS has transitioned to 100% domestic sourcing of 6 MIL nitrile gloves. American Nitrile is an approved secondary domestic source for 6 MIL black nitrile examination gloves and supports Nephron Nitrile when DHS has additional demand. Notwithstanding these efforts, nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) is still not domestically manufactured or produced at a level to the meet nitrile glove demands of the covered agencies. On December 16, 2023, DHS, in coordination with the Make PPE in America Act covered agencies, posted a special notice in the System for Award Management to this effect and, to date, have received no responses contradicting this understanding. DHS will continue to seek domestic manufacturers for nitrile gloves and will utilize those domestic sources that meet specifications and satisfy testing requirements as soon as they become available. In the interim, DHS is acquiring the most compliant nitrile glove possible that meets our specifications and testing requirements.