Bespoke testing
Your industry, our focus
Bespoke testing
Chemical permeation standards may not always represent the actual working environment or the dangerous chemicals (often chemical mixtures) you are being exposed to. To help test the chemical barrier effect and ensure chemical protections against such chemical mixtures, Eurofins companies offer a flexible approach, with unique method adaptations and a method development team to cater specifically our analytical and testing services to your chemical safety and protection.
As mentioned earlier, we can perform testing (both permeation EN 16523-1 and degradation EN 374-4) against all 18 chemicals listed in EN ISO 374-1:2016 / A1:2018. When real-use patterns are considered, the actual chemicals against which we want protection may not correspond to those 18 chemicals – what about real life scenarios involving industry workers using specialty chemicals to perform their duties and operations? Very often, these chemicals are actually chemical mixtures not included in the standards. Regardless of the frequency of exposure, these are typically chemicals from which you want to be protected. Extrapolated databases are commonly used by glove manufacturers to estimate the chemical safety of chemicals and chemical mixtures that go beyond the standard 18 chemicals listed. However, it can be very hard to predict how gloves actually protect against certain chemical mixtures and ‘cocktails’, especially considering chemicals with different molecular sizes. We strongly recommend prioritising the safety of workers over guesswork. Therefore, we are a flexible laboratory that’s able to go the extra mile and measure the permeation of chemical mixtures to help safeguard your workers and ensure their safety when dealing with specialty chemicals. We also have a team of chemists ready to develop new methods applicable to your specific chemical/chemical mixture(s).
Bespoke testing case studies:
- Cleaning professional
- Hair salons and hair professionals
- Epoxy resin, bone cements and other non-liquid chemicals
- Other chemical mixtures
- Other
Do you ever read the labels on domestic cleaning products? Probably not. What if we told you that some of these could in fact be highly toxic if in contact with your skin? Now imagine what might happen if you were to work with these products all day, five days a week – what if these cleaning products were extra tough to meet industrial and commercial cleaning requirements? Do you think it’s important to know if cleaning staff are protected and have selected the right type of gloves to protect them against exactly the chemicals with which they work every day?
You bet!
You can supply our Eurofins laboratory with the gloves and the chemicals (together with the safety data sheet, SDS) in these cleaning products so that we can help you to test the gloves’ chemical protection (chemical barrier effect). Cleaning professionals would feel much safer knowing that their gloves are selected to protect them against chemical dangers at work.
Hair salons and hair professionals
Bleaching / dying your hair occasionally might not be too harmful, but hair professionals do this every day as part of their profession. Do you imagine that these hair professionals care about their long-term chemical exposure and thus about wearing the right type of gloves to protect them against chemicals in the hair products, so that they can work safely?
You bet!
Our Eurofins testing laboratory allows hair salons to test their supply of gloves and find out how effectively it protects against the hair products specifically used in their business. This is not a random guess based on a set of chemicals in the EN 374-1, but rather we measure the protection against the exact chemicals to which the professionals are exposed in their daily work life.
Epoxy resin, bone cements and other non-liquid chemicals
Epoxy resin is commonly being used across various industries during production and/or repair. Bone cement is also widely used for surgeries.
The chemical permeation standards EN 16523-1, ISO 6529 and ASTM F 739 do not test against hardened chemicals.
If this this is not covered by the above standards, do you think it’s still important that workers are safe, protected and able to make an informed choice when selecting gloves?
You bet!
Our Eurofins testing laboratory offers the unique ability to test the chemical permeation of hardened chemicals using special method adaptations.
Whenever you have a chemical mixture with hazardous chemical components, wouldn’t it be nice to know that the glove you wear has a tested barrier effect against this?
You bet!
For any chemical mixture, we are ready to receive your request and determine a solution together. We need detailed information of the chemical components (CAS numbers) and the chemical mixing ratio and mixing procedure, so that we can do our best to resemble the actual chemical used and test the chemical barrier effect of different glove models against exactly that.
Stop guessing, start knowing. Send us a request if you want to know the following:
- That the chemical barrier effect (protection) of your current gloves represents safety and protection against the chemicals used in your current work environment
- Are you considering a new glove supplier? Make sure they protect against the chemicals you’re actually using
- Are you introducing new chemicals / chemical mixtures to your work environment? Make sure your current gloves have the relevant chemical barrier effect against these new chemicals
- Are you supplying gloves to specific industries (medical, cleaning, pharma, automotive, food services, etc.)? Make sure your gloves are tested to protect against all the relevant chemicals in that industry and not just a chosen set of chemicals in the EN 374-1 list
- If gloves are used to protect against the same chemical over and over, day and night, it is a good idea to consider adding the reporting of the cumulative permeation (total exposure of the chemical over a set time) rather than only the breakthrough time and permeation rate.
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