Potential exposure of hands inside protective gloves - A summary of data from non-agricultural pesticide surveys

The results of individual surveys are compared and general observations are made about the protective nature of protective gloves, A total of 190 meas urements of contamination by involatile components of pesticide products we re made inside the gloves. Protective gloves were nearly always found to be contaminated inside, except for public hygiene insecticide uses, Disposabl e gloves were sometimes used when applying public hygiene insecticides, whi le gloves worn for other applications were normally re-used. The data sugge st that when expressing inner glove exposure as 'amount of product per unit time', the data distributions of the non-zero results appeared similar for all activities except for the application of antifoulings, A median value for all non-zero data was indicated at 1.36 mg product per minute; a 75th p ercentile at 4.21 mg min(-1) and a 95th percentile at 71.9 mg min(-1), assu ming product densities of 1.0 g ml(-1), In default of better information, t hese indicators can be used in health-based risk assessment. A further 47 d ata related to exposure inside new gloves, and 21 data to deposition on out er gloves, These indicate that in general, gloves provide a reasonable degr ee of protection to non-agricultural pesticides. Due regard should be paid to 'human factors' when considering contamination inside gloves. When peopl e take off dirty gloves, it is difficult to avoid touching the glove exteri or. With gloves off, the subject can touch contaminated surfaces. Donning d irty gloves furnishes an inevitable contact with contamination on the outsi de of the gloves, and can introduce that contamination inside. A common mod e of contamination could contribute to the similar distributions for hand c ontamination inside gloves, from very different uses. Crown Copyright (C) 2 001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of BOHS, All rights reserve d.