The Permeability of Surgical Gloves to Seven Chemicals Commonly Used in Hospitals

Abstract

Disinfectants may cause adverse effects directly on the skin or systemically by permeating through the skin. In this study breakthrough times were measured for surgical gloves with chemicals which are commonly used in healthcare. Classical methods of analytical chemistry were tailored for the permeation tests, which were carried out according to the European standard EN 374 and the American standard ASTM F739. An exception to the EN 374 standard was made by using a 4 h testing time instead of 8 h. The gloves did not exhibit permeation of potassium hydroxide (45%), sodium hypochlorite (13%) or hydrogen peroxide (30%). Furthermore, neither glutaraldehyde (2%) nor chlorhexidine digluconate (4%) in the commercial disinfectant solutions studied exhibited permeation. Slight permeation of peracetic acid (0.35%) and acetic acid (4%) from a disinfectant agent was observed through single layered natural rubber materials. Clear evidence of formaldehyde permeation was detected through single layered natural rubber gloves, where the ASTM breakthrough times were 17-67 min, but the permeation rates were not high enough for breakthrough to have occurred according to the EN standard. The gloves in this study which offered most protection from chemical permeation were the chloroprene gloves and the thick double layered natural rubber gloves.

Effective mitigation strategies for reducing workers’ exposure to formaldehyde: a systematic review

“…The combination of the ventilation system, new procedures, better waste, and solvent management, and the use of half facepiece respirators and of furniture without any pad reported by Fustinoni et al (2021) resulted in a reduction percentage of airborne FA between − 7.7 and 53.2% (Fustinoni et al 2021). Data reported by Mäkelä et al (2003) are not comparable with the others because this work takes into account dermal contact with FA instead of the inhalation route (Mäkelä et al 2003). The work by Xu and Stewart (2016) did not specify FA concentration before the application of mitigation strategies; for this reason, it was not possible to calculate and compare the reduction percentage of FA (Xu and Stewart 2016).…”