Permeation of chemical protective clothing by three binary solvent mixtures.

An evaluation of glove materials against three different binary chemical mixtures selected from common industrial solvents was conducted. Changes in breakthrough time and permeation rate of the mixture components were evaluated as a function of the mixture composition. An increase in employee risk resulting from early mixture breakthrough time and enhanced mixture permeation rate over that of the pure chemicals was demonstrated. The permeation of a binary mixture through chemical protective clothing could not be predicted by the permeation results of the pure components. It is recommended that chemical protective clothing be tested for its permeation characteristics with the use of the chemical mixtures and conditions that reflect the work site exposure.

Chemical protective clothing: a comparison of chemical permeation test cells and direct-reading instruments.

Chemical permeation of acetone through unsupported Neoprene using the ASTM cell and another commercially-available, but smaller, test cell was compared. Also, different portable direct-reading instruments were used to determine breakthrough time and steady-state permeation. The breakthrough times between the two permeation cells and among different portable direct-reading instruments were not statistically different. However, steady-state permeation rates between the two cells using the same direct-reading instrument were statistically different. Chemical permeation test methods suitable for field evaluation of chemical protective clothing are discussed.