The exposure of unprotected hands to solid organic chemicals can result in various injuries via skin absorption of the compound. Glove materials used to protect the skin from direct contact may allow the chemical to permeate, creating conditions hazardous to human health. The objectives of the proposed investigation are to develop methods to evaluate the permeation of protective glove materials exposed to solid organic compounds. Initially, a test cell suitable for this study will be constructed and evaluated with commercially available gloves exposed to commonly used organic solids. After developing a computer-controlled system for data acquisition, interpretation, and system operation, the critical permeation characteristics (breakthrough time, steady-state permeation time, and steady-state solid permeation rate) will be determined for an initial set of glove materials and solid permeants. The effect of different variables including temperature, nature of the collecting medium, glove material thickness and composition, and permeant composition of the critical permeation characteristics will be examined. From the method of pattern recognition, a representative set of chemical permeants will be identified. This model set will be used to evaluate the proposed method with commercially available gloves.
