The effect of an alternate environment as a collection medium on the permeation characteristics of solid organics through protective glove materials.

With a method developed for the determination of permeation characteristics of glove materials by organic solids, a study of the effect of a saline environment on permeation characteristics such as breakthrough and steady state permeation was performed at ambient temperature. The study uses saline as a collection medium and a stainless steel permeation cell designed exclusively for solids. The system allows for materials of five commercially available gloves to be exposed to nine organic solids. Natural rubber latex yielded the shortest and nitrile the longest breakthrough times. Overall, breakthrough times were comparable to a method using a helium collection medium, but in many exposures the saline-based collection medium yielded longer breakthrough times, 2% to 894%. In the testing involving the saline collection medium, results showed that the polarity of the glove material may be a factor that reduces measured permeation rate.