Abstract
Many articles of protective clothing have become quite expensive, and consequently, there is need for reuse of those articles. One concern, however, is whether the articles require decontamination if they are splashed by a liquid or contact a hazardous gas. Concerns over contamination involve two important aspects: 1) loss of toxic chemical to the inside of the garment, which may pose a hazard to the worker, and 2) residual contaminant within the polymer, which may change its permeation properties. In this study, butyl rubber was chosen as a representative protective clothing polymer, and small samples were contaminated with five microliters of various solvents. Several decontamination techniques were tried. In all cases, treatment at 50°C in an oven for 24 hours removed residual solvents, relative to treatment for 24 hours at room temperature. In the case of toluene, two other techniques were used. Freon treatment removed approximately half the solvent removed by heat treating, whereas detergent removed only one-third of the solvent as compared to heat treating. As indicated by three-dimensional solubility parameter distance, solubility of the chemicals in butyl rubber was directly proportional, in general, to the amount of residual solvents in the polymer. Other results indicated that a 50°C environment for 24 hours did not affect the butyl polymer, whereas 75° and 100°C did. In addition, there was considerable residual Freon in the butyl rubber after the Freon decontamination. The three-dimensional solubility parameter determined for a butyl rubber from North Company was dispersion = 17.6, polar=0, hydrogen bonding=0 (J/cc)1/2. Perkins, J.L.; Johnson, J.S.; Swearengen, P.M.; Sackett, C.P.; Weaver, S.C.: Residual spilled solvents in butyl protective clothing and usefulness of decontamination procedures. Appl. Ind. Hyg. 2: 179–182; 1987.