Laboratory protective clothing safety standards are published by ISO and ISEA and cover a variety of requirements for proper lab safety clothing, including test methods for bodily fluids, liquid chemicals, and limited-use coveralls. These protective measures prevent many of the most common infections and hazards in many chemical, medical, and biohazard scenarios. If you or your organization needs guidance for properly protecting personnel, consider purchasing a standard document as an instantly delivered PDF file.
This document describes laboratory test methods to determine the resistance of materials used in protective clothing, including gloves and including footwear, when the footwear is an integral part of the clothing, to permeation by liquid or gaseous chemicals under the conditions of continuous contact. This test method is referred to in ISO 16602-3. Method A is applicable to testing against liquid chemicals, either volatile or sufficiently soluble in water (such that detection limits are possible that allow breakthrough times and/or cumulative permeation parameters to be measured), that are expected to be in continuous contact with the protective clothing material. Method B is applicable to testing against gaseous chemicals expected to be in continuous contact with the protective clothing material. These test methods assess the permeation resistance of the protective clothing material under laboratory conditions in terms of cumulative permeation, permeation rate and breakthrough time. These test methods also enable qualitative observations to be made of the effects of the test chemical on the material under test. These test methods are only suitable for measuring permeation by liquids and gases. Permeation by solid challenge chemicals is beyond the scope of this document. NOTE It can be difficult or impossible to normalize the results of permeation tests carried out against solid challenge chemicals. The normalized rate of permeation is dependent on the area of fabric exposed to the challenge chemical. In the case of solids this will, in turn, depend also on factors such as particle size, size distribution, particle shape and packing considerations. These test methods address only the performance of materials or certain materials' constructions (e.g. seams). These test methods do not address the design, overall construction and components, or interfaces of garments, or interfaces between garments and gloves or garments and footwear, or other factors which can affect the overall chemical protection offered by protective clothing, gloves or footwear or combinations of chemical protective clothing, gloves and footwear. It is emphasized that these tests do not necessarily simulate conditions to which materials are likely to be exposed in practice. In most cases the conditions of the permeation test will be far more challenging than expected workplace conditions.
ISO 16603:2004 describes a laboratory test method for measuring the penetration resistance of clothing materials to blood and body fluids. This test method uses a synthetic blood in continuous contact with the material specimen at specified set of conditions using the ISO 13994 test apparatus. This test method is not always effective in testing protective clothing materials having thick, inner liners which readily absorb the synthetic blood.
ISO 16604:2004 describes a laboratory test method for measuring the resistance of materials used in protective clothing to penetration by blood-borne pathogens. This test method uses a surrogate microbe under conditions of continuous liquid contact. Protective clothing pass/fail determinations are based on the detection of viral penetration at a specific hydrostatic pressure using the ISO 13994 test apparatus. This test method is not always effective in testing protective clothing materials having thick, inner liners which readily absorbs the challenge fluid. This test method involves a sensitive assay procedure. Because of the length of time required to complete this test method, it might not be suitable for use as a material or protective clothing quality control or assurance procedure.
ISO 13994:2005 describes a laboratory test method that enables determination of the resistance of materials used in protective clothing to visible penetration under the conditions of continuous liquid contact and pressure, for example, clothing that is exposed to repeated splashes of liquid spray under pressure. Protective clothing pass/fail determinations are based on visual detection of liquid penetration. This test method is normally used to evaluate the barrier effectiveness against liquids of materials used for protective clothing and specimens from finished items of protective clothing. ISO 13994:2005 addresses only the performance of materials or certain material constructions (e.g. seams) used in protective clothing. It does not address the design, overall construction and components, or interfaces of garments or other factors which may affect the overall protection offered by the protective clothing.
This standard establishes minimum size requirements, as well as garment and package labeling requirements, for limited-use and disposable coveralls. This standard includes a sizing chart to assist the wearer in the selection of the correct garment size, and test protocols to validate size selection.