142 Comparative analysis of permeation test results: EN 14325 vs. ISO 16602 for chemical protective clothing

Introduction EN 14325:2018 and ISO 16602:2012 provide guidelines for testing chemical protective clothing against chemicals with different criteria. Taiwan’s CNS primarily favours ISO 16602. This research tested Type 4 chemical protective clothing according to EN and ISO standards to evaluate data consistency and unity. Methodology Type 4 protective clothing from two manufacturers were selected for this study. Both fabric and seam components were encompassed for examinations. The tested chemicals were sulfuric acid, sodium hydroxide, and toluene. The permeation experiment procedures followed ISO and EN standards by applying horizontal and vertical permeation test apparatus in triplication. In total, 36 samples were tested. The breakthrough times (BT) were recorded according to the definitions of EN at a permeation rate of 1.0 μg/cm2-min and ISO at 0.1 μg/cm2-min. Results There were no significant differences in the BTs between the ISO and EN criteria with the p-Value > 0.05 by the Mann–Whitney U test. However, comparing types of test apparatus (vertical vs. horizontal), types of seams (binding vs. taping), and components (fabric vs. seam), all the BTs are significantly different (p-Value < 0.05). Toluene immediately broke through the tested Type 4 clothing, i.e., less than 15 seconds. Conclusions The BTs of the vertical test apparatus are shorter than the BTs of horizontal results. The effect of gravity might be counted for the results. Seams are usually considered to be the weak parts of protective clothing. The binding seams were more vulnerable than the fabric. The chemical resistance tests of these components should be included as ISO requirements.