The Validation of a Permeation Cell for Testing Chemical Protective Clothing

Abstract

The performance of a simple rugged permeation cell for testing chemical protective clothing was compared with the reference cell suggested by the American Society for Testing and Materials and using their validation protocol. The new cell overcomes some of the limitations of the reference cell including ruggedness, low dead space, ease and speed of use, and small sample size. The testing of the new cell was performed under standard conditions using acetone against reference neoprene with an automated test system incorporating a photoionization detector. The performance of the new cell was found to be within the acceptance criteria for normalized breakthrough time and steady state permeation rate. The normalized breakthrough time index was a major impediment to the automated testing of more than one cell at a time, as it required a very low degree of cross contamination between cells, if a shared detector was used. It is suggested that lag times rather than normalized breakthrough times form part of the basis for comparison of permeation cells. The pretreatment of test samples to remove volatile contaminants requires consideration.