Putting protective clothing to the test

The ASTM method establishes the time to breakthrough under conditions of continuous liquid or gaseous contact. The default breakthrough time is 480 minutes (eight hours). A lot of companies choose clothing materials that offer the eight hours of breakthrough time - which represents a worst-case scenario - when the exposure situation may only require, say, four hours. By properly assessing the resistance of protective clothing materials to permeation, employers can effectively downgrade and still get optimum protection.