JCHAS 135 12

FEATURE

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Protective
clothing
development
played a key role in NASAs success
in the space program in the 1960s, but
it was not until the passage of the
Occupational Safety and Health Act
in 1970 that protective clothing
became a priority in safety and health
programs for controlling exposure in
the occupational environment. The
technology and knowledge developed
in the composition of materials for
construction and design of space suits
was also needed to protect workers in
the occupational environment from
chemical, physical and biological
hazards. Chemicals used in the production of industrial and consumer
products were being identified as carcinogens, radiation exposure was
known to cause cancer and exposure
to known and unknown biological
agents were a threat to spread disease.
With this background, it was recognized that a new effort was needed
to provide better protection to workers
in all occupations where protective
clothing was used to control exposure.
Depending on the type of occupation and need for protection, gloves,
lab aprons, lab coats, suits (turn out
gear) and fully encapsulated suits were
basic clothing materials used for protection in the 1970s. In academic
chemistry laboratories students were
either given or asked to purchase lab
coats and aprons for required laboratory courses. Some types of clothing

were disposable, while others were

reusable depending on durability and
cost. The clothing and suit materials
were made from both natural and synthetic materials such as latex, cotton
and neoprene. However, not much
was known about their performance
other than rudimentary physical
degradation test method data with specific commodity chemicals such as
acids, bases and solvents. Physical performance data consisted of weight
gain, tensile strength and percent elongation. It was not until about 1978 that
ASTM recognized the need for standardized performance data on protective clothing for users and established a
new technical committee, F23, on Protective Clothing. It was from this committee in 1983 that the first chemical
permeation test method was developed (ASTM F-739).1 This method
provided permeation data and guidance on the selection of various polymer materials to one sided exposure to
specific gases and liquid chemicals.
Finding a polymer material that was
resistance to ASTMs recommended
standard battery of test chemicals
became a challenge, but led to the
development of a glove material made
of a new co-polymer that was resistance to all of the standard battery test
chemicals for 4 hours and hence was
named the 4-H glove.
The 1980s saw the development of
many new performance test methods,
guidance documents and practices
from ASTMs committee F23. Physical
test methods for thermal, flame, cut
and penetration resistance were developed as well as a fully encapsulated
suit pressure test. It was also recognized that given the burden of thick
heavy suit materials used for reusable

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By Norman W. Henry III

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The developments of the standards for protective clothing are reviewed.

Norman W. Henry III, MS, CIH, is

affiliated with SHBP (Safety and
Health by Protection), 129 Ballantrae
Dr, Elkton, MD 21921, United States
(e-mail: shbp65@comcast.net).

1871-5532/$32.00
doi:10.1016/j.jchas.2007.05.003

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Four decades of protective

clothing development and
standardization

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protective clothing that a more flexible, light weight material was needed
to allow for dexterity and mobility,
hence human factor standards were
considered for comfort and heat stress
concerns.
Meanwhile,
protective
clothing programs were being developed in industry, academia, government and the military using guidance
documents such as OSHAs Chemical
Hygiene Plan and manufacturers chemical and physical resistance guides
produced from data generated from
ASTMs performance test methods.
The 1990s saw the evolution of biological penetration standards for protection against exposure to blood and
blood borne pathogens. Two new
ASTM emergency standards were
developed to test the resistance of glove
materials and gowns to penetration of
synthetic blood and a specific bacteriophage having the same size as the hepatitis and AIDS virus.2 Both methods
soon became performance standards
to be used in the healthcare industry
where a Biological Exposure Plan was
required by OSHA. Also of note, was
the recognition of latex allergies produced from routinely wearing latex
gloves. New synthetic gloves were
needed that were stronger than natural
latex, not prone to having pin holes, tear
or be punctured, and also free of natural
latex protein responsible for allergies.
This resulted in the development of
thin, stronger more durable synthetic
nitrile glove now used and recommended in the healthcare industry.
With the turn of the century in 2000,
protective clothing developments
focused on a new area of concern,
responding to chemical, nuclear and
biological threats from agents of mass
destruction. Protective clothing used

Division of Chemical Health and Safety of the American Chemical Society

Published by Elsevier Inc.

Please cite this article in press as: Henry N. W. Four decades of protective clothing development and standardization, J. Chem. Health
Safety (2007), doi:10.1016/j.jchas.2007.05.003

JCHAS 135 12

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four decades of protective clothing

developments have resulted in the
development of new products with better protection, greater selection and
more trained users. These developments would not have been possible
without support from government regulatory and research programs, as well
as technical and professional safety
organizations working together. The
outcome of these developments has
been to improve protection and prevent
exposure to potential harmful agents in
the occupational and community environments where agents of mass destruction threaten our lives. So we have gone
from the remote environment in space
to the occupational environment and
now the community environment
where portable protective clothing will
hopefully save lives in the event of a
natural disaster or terror attack

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wear the vests. These are some of the

more recent developments in protective
clothing that have occurred in this decade of world unrest and uncertainty.
Past decade developments can be found
in ASTMs STPs (Standard Technical
Publications) that contain Symposium
publications on protective clothing
research conducted between 1980
and 2000.4
So today if you would survey protective clothing users, you would see more
users in the occupational environment
wearing protective clothing and greater
availability of different types of protective clothing. With the establishment of
regulatory chemical and biological control plans by OSHA, protective clothing
programs with hazard assessments,
training requirements, standard operating procedures and access to performance data generated from standard
methods, users now have the information needed to select appropriate clothing for protection. The development of
new synthetic polymers and co-polymers as barrier materials coated or laminated on gloves or suit materials has
improved resistance to various chemical solvents. At the same time some of
these materials can be fabricated into
lightweight disposable garments that
reduce the potential of contamination
from reuse, cost of decontamination
and burden of heat stress. Other
improvements are being made in
designing clothing compatible with personal protective equipment such as
respirators, shrouds, hats, gloves and
boots. Because of this, ASTM committee F23 has changed its scope and title
to Protective Clothing and Equipment
to respond to combined needs for specifications in both types of protection.
In many instances specification standards are being developed to allow for
compatibility of individual items of
clothing with other types of personal
protective equipment. Overall, the last

UN

for emergency response to such situations was needed. Hazmat teams

already had performance data to select
appropriate clothing to respond to
accidental chemical spills and releases,
but now there was the unexpected
potential exposure to a war gas, radioactive material or biological agents
such as Anthrax. In the medical field
occupational exposure to radiation
from X-rays used for diagnoses was a
concern, so ASTM committee F23
formed a subcommittee for radiation
protective clothing that produced a
standard for materials used to protect
against radiation generated during the
use of X-ray equipment.3
In the research community, another
effort was also needed to address protective clothing requirements in nanotechnology, where particles 1/1000th
the diameter of human hair potentially
could penetrate protective clothing barriers. Because of these needs ASTM,
NFPA, NIOSH, AIHA, NIST and other
professional, technical, research and
standard organizations and institutions
collaborated research, funds, personnel
and resources toward an international
effort to protect both workers and civilians potentially at risk. Recently,
NIOSH opened up a new National
Personal
Protective
Technology
Laboratory in Pittsburg, PA and ASTM
went international to (ASTM International). Some of the most recent developments include the use of silicon
nanoparticles to coat Kevlar army suits
to protect soldiers from shrapnel injuries in the Middle East war. Kevlar
already was used in bullet proof vests
to prevent ballistic penetration, but now
coated with silicon would provide
added protection from smaller artillery
fragments. Also, because of the added
weight on these Kevlar vests and hot
environment in the Middle East War, a
new body ventilation device (system)
was developed to cool soldiers as they

REFERENCES
[1]. Henry, N. W.; Schlatter, C. N. The
development of a standard method for
evaluating chemical protective clothing to permeation by liquids. Am. Ind.
Hyg. Assoc. J. 1981, 42, 202207.
[2]. ASTM F-1670 and F-1671, Standard
Test Methods for Resistance of Materials Used in Protective Clothing to
Penetration by Synthetic Blood (F1670) and Penetration by Blood Borne
Pathogens Using Phi-X174 (F-1671).
ASTM Annual Book of Standards,
Section 11, Volume 11.03, 1995.
[3]. ASTM F-2547-06, Standard Test
Method for Determining the Attenuation Properties in a Primary X-ray
Beam of Materials Used to Protect
Against Radiation Generated During
the Use of X-ray Equipment. ASTM
Annual Book of Standards, Section 11,
Volume 11.03, 2006.
[4]. ASTM STPs, 900 (1986), 989 (1988),
1037 (1989), 1133 (1992), 1237
(1996), 1386 (2000), ASTM International, 100 Barr Harbor Drive, P.O.
Box C 700 West Conshohocken, PA
19428-2959.

2
Journal of Chemical Health & Safety, July/August 2007

Please cite this article in press as: Henry N. W. Four decades of protective clothing development and standardization, J. Chem. Health
Safety (2007), doi:10.1016/j.jchas.2007.05.003