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Chemical Resistance of Glove Materials
Protective gloves are not equally effective for every hazardous chemical. Some chemicals will "break through" the glove material in a very short time.
Some gloves may be degraded by the chemicals in use. Thus, gloves must be
selected based upon the chemical hazards. Performance of gloves
depends on such factors as material of construction, thickness of glove material
and conditions of manufacture. It is best to refer to the glove
manufacturer's literature.
(CLICK on the links below for guidance in glove selection.
Also contact EHS for assistance.)
Manufacturer/Vendor Sites with Permeability Data and/or Selection Guides
Ansell-Edmont - Ansell Industrial, 1300 Walnut St., Coshocton, OH 43812.
From the
Ansell
Healthcare home page you may browse for guidance in glove selection or try
SpecWare, Ansell's interactive chemical resistance and glove recommendations guide to nearly 200 industrial chemicals and mixtures. Links to toxicology information, for thousands of chemicals from the National Library of Medicine database, is also provided.
Best Manufacturing Company - 579 Edison Street, Menlo, GA 30731.
Best offers a wide variety of gloves and several guides from the
Best home page.
One useful tool is
CHEMREST, where you can search by chemical name, CAS number, and chemical class.
Lab Safety Supply - PO Box 1368, Janesville, WI 53547.
Lab Safety Supply sells gloves made by
several manufacturers. Several documents are available for download which
provide general information about OSHA regulations, selection factors and criteria, and types of glove materials.
Also, you may e-mail technical support,
techsvc@labsafety.com, or consult the chemical compatibility chart contained in their hard copy catalog.
MAPA Professional - 85 85 Innsbruck Drive, Buffalo, NY 14227.
MAPA has several guides to glove selection accessible from the
MAPA home page.
North
Safety Products - 2000 Plainfield Pike, Cranston, RI 02921
North has
several guidance documents for selection of gloves and other PPE.
Safeskin Corporation - 12671 High Bluff Drive, San Diego, CA 92130.
Safeskin, a
division of Kimberly Clark, has a
Chemical Resistance
Database which provides guidance for selection of gloves and other
protective apparel.
Government & University Sites with Selection Guides
Michigan State University, Office of Radiation, Chemical & Biological Safety.
Selection and Usage of Chemically-Resistant Gloves - An outstanding resource. Guidelines. Definitions. Browse glove information by company (Ansell, Best, MAPA & North). Browse glove information by chemical (287).
The Office of Radiation, Chemical & Biological Safety (ORCBS) at MSU
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Guide for Evaluating the Performance of Chemical Protective Clothing 90-109 - is available on the NIOSH web site at
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/90-109.html.
(NIOSH publications dating from 1979 to the present may be searched at the following link:
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/publistb.html. The only way available to obtain some older, but still useful publications, which are out of print.)
Oklahoma State University, Department of Environmental Health & Safety.
Chemical Guide and Permeation Tables - Extensive guide for 382 chemicals against six glove materials. Can be viewed as a single html file, three smaller html files, or downloaded as an MS Excel 4.0 spreadsheet.
http://www.pp.okstate.edu/ehs/hazmat/gloves.htm
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