Introduction

More than 10-15% of workers in the United States (U.S.) were estimated to risk potential exposure to chemicals via skin contact in 2013.[1] The Bureau of Labor and Statistics reported 18,500 cases (0.019% of total) of occupational dermal diseases in 2017 in the U.S., compared with 10,400 cases of respiratory diseases.[2] A 2017 report stated that skin diseases comprised 20-30% of occupational diseases in Europe.[3]

In 2002, about 15 trillion pounds of chemicals were imported/produced in the U.S.,[4] and a peak of about 27 trillion pounds in 2005.[1,4] The U.S. chemical industry production index is an economic indicator that measures real output in weight, inflation-adjusted sales figures, or production worker-hours in the manufacturing, mining, electric and gas (but not construction) industries relative to the base year 2012. This index in 2002 was 85.1%; in 2005, 109.3%; in 2015, 97.3%; and in 2016, 98%.[5] Similar trends have been found in the European Union.[6] Many chemicals, but especially new ones, do not have standard analytical chemistry methods, and there are too many chemicals to test, as well as too many workers for individual testing.

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Surprisingly, for such an important exposure route as skin, there are very few guidelines that might help define permissible exposures to chemicals and allow worker risk assessments. This lack of guidelines has probably also contributed to the relatively high incidence of skin disease. The major guidance system in the U.S. is based on a system of notations. Skin absorption that causes systemic effects for a chemical is currently notated as “skin”; dermal sensitization is “DSEN”; and animal skin/lung sensitization with little human data is “SEN” in the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH®) 2019 Threshold Limit Values (TLVs®) and Biological Exposure Indices (BEIs) booklet.[7] The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has dermal guidelines[1] that incorporate skin irritation and skin absorption.[8] There is also a skin permeation calculator.[8] The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has skin notation nomenclature similar to ACGIH’s 1968 recommendations, the major difference for “skin” being that the chemical is known to be dermally absorbed.[9] The United States (U.S.) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has strategies for estimating dermal exposure and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE).[10] The American Industrial Hygiene Association from 2008-2011 did have a Biological Environmental Exposure Level Project Team for skin risk assessment.[11] There is now a SkinPerm calculator.

Given the millions of employees potentially at risk in the world, more research and development are essential to anticipate, recognize, evaluate, control, and prevent skin exposures. Despite advances to prevent chemical exposures through the hierarchy of controls, gloves are still the primary hand protection for workers.[1] Often the hands are the first targets directly exposed to chemical, thermal, and mechanical hazards, often in combination.[1,2]

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Gloves as a part of PPE are essential in both remediation/rescue/emergency operations for chemical spills, and to protect the hands during the work shift when chemicals are handled. A common directive in safety data sheets is to “Use the appropriate glove”, something that has to be determined by a professional who needs to understand the factors involved and to employ “professional judgment.” Part of the latter involves the application of past history to current practice. This suggested to the authors the need to analyze the current state of glove permeation.

The scientific research literature of glove permeation in the 21st century up to December 2018 was therefore searched and the results examined. The databases used were PubMed, the Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB), Toxline (National Library of Medicine), and Scifinder Scholar (Chemical Abstracts). All were searched with the words “glove permeation.”

This article is divided into two portions. The current first portion covers the introduction, permeation basics, the past and existing permeation standards, their comparison, their scientific literature critiques in the form of scientific literature related to a whole glove model, and final conclusions. To obtain the relevant reference for this first portion, the general abstract set was refined with search words: ASTM F739, EN 374, ISO 6529, permeation cell, breakthrough time, steady state permeation, diffusion coefficient, theory, report, review, book, production, and manufacture. Duplicate citations were then eliminated before reading titles, abstracts and then if appropriate, the original source.

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