Protective clothing evaluation

Benisek L, Edmondson GK and Phillips WA (1979), Protective clothing Evaluation of zirpro wool and other fabrics, Fire and Materials, 3(3), pp. 156-166. 

Australian/New Zealand Standard, Sun Protective Clothing— Evaluation and Classification. 

The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) has introduced a number of test methods relating to protective clothing. For example, the ASTM F23 Committee on Protective Clothing has devised protocols for measuring chemical resistance of materials. There are not however, any comprehensive standards which list a minimum number of tests or chemicals to evaluate materials. 

An expert system, named "GlovES+," has been written to provide reliable selections of chemical protective clothing for a wide variety of chemicals. The system conducts "intelligent searches" which emulate a human expert s decision path in evaluating a large database from an electronic publication by Forsberg. 

Selection of polymers used in the manufacture of chemical protective clothing (CPC) is a complex task. It involves evaluating breakthrough times and permeation rates in conjunction with such task requirements as tactility and resistance to cuts and abrasion. But, it involves a more basic problem — that of deciding which polymer(s), in the absence of test data, might be most likely to resist permeation by a specific chemical. These decisions are faced not only by users of CPC (e.g., industrial hygienists), but also by poljnner chemists and CPC manufacturers. 

Oakland, B.G., Dodd, R.B., Schabacker, D.J., and Clegg, L.X. (1992a) Preliminary evaluation of nonwoven chemically treated barrier fabrics for field testing of protective clothing for agricultural workers exposed to pesticides, Bull. Environ. 

Ojanen, K., Sarantila, R., Klen, T., and Kangas, J. (1992) Evaluation of the efficiency and comfort of protective clothing during herbicide spraying, Appl. Occup. Environ. Hyg., 7 815-819. 

Competence Information Evaluation of possible problems Every user must be competent (Certificate of Competence required in UK) Workers must be supplied with sufficient information and guidance Product selection How to comply with the conditions of approval Selection of protective clothing How to avoid spray drift How to avoid environmental damage Need to warn neighbours and others who may tie affected etc. 

Currently, there is no information on performance testing of chemical protective clothing against carbamate nerve agents. Evaluation of fabrics used to prevent exposure to carbamate pesticides may provide guidance on selection of appropriate protective clothing. 

NATO Army Armaments Group (NAAG), Land Group 7 (Joint NBC Defence) Operational Requirements,Technical Specification and Evaluation Criteria for NBC Protective Clothing (AEP-38). Brussels NATO, 1998. 

The list is far from eomplete or eomprehensive. In most instances, the data on toxieity ean be obtained by loeating an appropriate Material Safety Data Sheet for the eompound. A quiek web search can identify the toxic levels for most eompounds. The site must be evaluated with respect to the levels of compounds, their toxicity and the likelihood of deliberate or accidental contact between workers on the site and the chemicals. A suitable level of protective clothing must be selected for all workers. 

PQ) M.F, Zimmer L.D. Lipton, "Dynamic Pressure Measurements on Small Amounts of Detonating Lead Azide", Explosivstoffe 18, 12—15(1970). Abstracted in Expls Pyrots 3(8), 1970. (To evaluate the safery of handling small (few mg to 1 g) amts of LA in daily pilot plant operations, dynamic pressure measurements were taken with/or without protective cloth. The distance from the sample to die gauge was changed from 1 to 30cm)... 

Evaluation of the occlusive properties of different pastes in vitro 2 g of test product were carefully spread over the surface of agar-filled Petri dishes. The dishes were weighed and kept at room temperature in a box covered by a protecting cloth (start values). Further weighings were taken at days 1,2, and 5 thereafter. For control purposes, white petrolatum and a plate without any test product were included in the test. Each experiment was conducted in triplicate. 

ASTM F 955 Standard Test Method for Evaluating Heat Transfer through Materials for Protective Clothing upon Contact with Molten Substances... 

Camenzind, M.A., Dale, D.J., and Rossi, R.M. 2007. Manikin test for flame engulfment evaluation of protective clothing Historical review and development of a new ISO standard. Fire Mater., 31(5) 285-296. 

Fenske, R.A. (1993b). Fluorescent Tracer Evaluation of Protective Clothing Perfomuince. Final Report, US Environmental Protection Agency, Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, Cincinnati, OH, USA. 

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