Permeability of protective gloves to sodium lauryl sulfate. Release chambers used as an in vitro test system

Background/aims: Gloves are important and necessary in many occupations especially in wet work. They may offer a protection against harmful materials, but many substances may also penetrate protective gloves.
Methods: The permeability of 6 different commonly used protective gloves to the anionic detergent sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) was investigated. The gloves were tested as membranes in diffusion cells at 32°C. (³⁵S)SLS 1% was used as permeant and synthetic sweat was used as recipient. Samples were counted on a scintillation counter.
Results: During a test period of 24 h, none of the gloves tested were found to be permeable to SLS.
Conclusions: The gloves tested were found to offer protection against SLS. The difussion cells were useful for in vitro testing of protective gloves under controlled experimental conditions.