CHEMICAL GLOVE TESTING IS CHANGING

A new version of EN 374, the standard used to regulate chemical protective gloves, has been published as a joint International and European standard. PERMEATION EN ISO 374-1

Tested against 6 chemicals from the table below with a breakthrough time of 30 mins or more (level 2)

Tested against 3 chemicals from the table below with a breakthrough time of 30 mins or more (level 2)

Tested against 1 chemical from the table below with a breakthrough time of 10 mins or more (level 1)

CODE LETTER	CHEMICAL	CAS NUMBER	CLASS	CODE LETTER	CHEMICAL	CAS NUMBER	CLASS
A	Methanol	67-56-1	Primary alcohol	B	Acetone	67-64-1	Ketone
C	Acetonitrile	75-05-8	Nitrile compound	D	Dichloromethane	75-09-2	Chlorinated hydrocarbon
E	Carbon disulphide	75-15-0	Sulphur containing organic compound	F	Toluene	108-88-3	Aromatic hydrocarbon
G	Diethylamine	109-89-7	Amine	H	Tetrahydrofuran	109-99-9	Heterocyclic and ether compound
I	Ethyl acetate	141-78-6	Ester	J	n-Heptane	142-82-5	Saturated hydrocarbon
K	Sodium hydroxide 40%	1310-73-2	Inorganic base	L	Sulphuric acid 96%	7664-93-9	Inorganic mineral acid
M	Nitric acid 65%	7697-37-2	Inorganic mineral acid, oxidising	N	Acetic acid 99%	64-19-7	Organic acid
O	Ammonium hydroxide 25%	1336-21-6	Organic base	P	Hydrogen peroxide 30%	7722-84-1	Peroxide
Q	Hydrofluoric acid 40%	7664-39-3	Inorganic mineral acid	R	Formaldehyde 37%	50-00-0	Aldehyde

PROTECTION AGAINST MICRO-ORGANISMS     EN 374-1:2003

EN 374-1:2003:  covers the ability of the glove to protect the user against micro-organisms. In very simple terms how likely is the glove to have a pin hole or other imperfection which would allow the glove to leak. In order to carry the “micro-organism” pictogram the glove should achieve Level 2 or above based on the table below.

Performance Level	Acceptable Quality Level (AQL)	Inspection Level
Level 1	>4.0	S4
Level 2	>1.5	G1
Level 3	>0.65	G1

NEW TEST                       EN ISO 374-5:2016