Development of Performance Criteria for Protective Clothing Used against Carcinogenic Liquids.

Coletta-GC; Schwope-AD; Arons-IJ; King-JW; Sivak-A

NIOSH 1977 Nov:151 pages

00192773

A set of recommended performance criteria was compiled to assist in providing safe working conditions for workers involved in the production, use or transport of liquid chemicals which may cause harm to the human body. A simple experimental procedure was also developed to measure the resistance to permeation of protective clothing materials by liquid chemicals. Using this procedure, the barrier properties of several polymeric materials were evaluated against nine carcinogenic liquids including benzene (71432), trichloroethylene (79016), and beta-propiolactone (57578). Measurements were taken of breakthrough times, steady state fluxes, and chemical solubilities. The breakthrough times for widely used materials in many cases were significantly less than the recommended 60 minutes. The authors recommend that protective clothing materials be subjected to a comprehensive performance evaluation. Conclusions and recommendations are included concerning performance standards, future availability of trade recommendations for clothing to be used against carcinogens, minimum performance against carcinogens, permeation tests, rapid screening of candidate materials, test conditions, test specimens, leather, pesticides and other harmful chemicals, and NIOSH criteria documents.

NIOSH-Contract; Contract-210-76-0130; Protective-clothing; Worker-health; Safety-research; Chemical-industry-workers; Personal-protective-equipment; Skin-exposure; Skin-protection; Chlorinated-hydrocarbons; Organic-solvents;

71-43-2; 79-01-6; 57-57-8;

19771101

Final Contract Report;

Contract;

1978

PB90-162694

A09

Contract-210-76-0130

DPSE;

Control Technology and Personal Protective Equipment; Research Tools and Approaches;

Division of Physical Sciences and Engineering, NIOSH, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Cincinnati, Ohio

OH;