EN 374-1 Chemical Resistant Standard

The ISO 374 Protective gloves against dangerous chemicals and micro-organisms have changed substantially and have now been published under the standard ISO EN374-1 and EN374-5. The changes include the following: the number of chemicals tested increased (from 12 to 18), the beaker icon is no longer used, the gloves are classified (A, B, or C) as well as a degradation test is now conducted.

Resistance to permeation is assessed by measuring the time for a chemical to break through the glove material. Samples, cut from the palms of the gloves are placed in a permeation cell, which enables the chemical to be placed in contact with the outer surface of the glove. For gloves longer than 400mm, three test specimens from the cuff area will also be required. Collection air or water is passed through the cell to collect any chemical that has broken through to the inside surface of the glove samples.

The ‘Chemical resistant’ glove pictogram must be accompanied by at least a 3-digit code. This code refers to the code letters (A-T) of at least 3 chemicals (from a list of 18 standard chemicals as shown below), for which a breakthrough time of at least 30 minutes has been obtained.

Permeation: The process by which a chemical agent migrates through the protective glove at a molecular level (performance level 0 to 6). Performance levels are assessed according to the breakthrough times of the chemicals. Breakthrough is deemed to have occurred when the ow rate of 1ug/cm2/min is reached.

Gloves are separated into 3 classification types based on permeation performance – TYPE A, TYPE B or TYPE C. As previously stated, the beaker icon is no longer used. Instead there are three flask pictograms as shown below.

TYPE A: Protective glove with permeation resistance of at least 30 minutes each for at least 6 test chemicals

TYPE B: Protective glove with permeation resistance of at least 30 minutes each for at least 3 test chemicals

TYPE C: Protective glove with permeation resistance of at least 10 minutes each for at least 1 test chemicals

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