Polyco Main Catalogue

Standards Explained All personal protective equipment (PPE) gloves must comply with the standard EN 1420, Protective Gloves General Requirements and Test Methods. Other standards, some of which are explained below, relate to specific types of hazards or industry standards such as • Chemical Risk • Micro-organism Risk • Food Migration Food Approval There are two stages that a glove manufacturer must go through to ensure that a product is suitable for food use; 1. Ensure that the product formulation is made from products listed in regulation 10/2011 (relating to plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with foodstuffs). This is a positive list whereby the product concerned can only be made from the materials listed in this directive. 2. Perform migration testing to ensure that the article in contact with food does not leach anything into the food. This is detailed in the EN1186 series of standards (materials and articles in contact with foodstuffs - plastics). If both of these criteria are met, the following symbol can be applied to the glove and/or packaging: EN1186

Technical

EN1186 requires that there is a maximum overall migration limit from the article into the food of 10mg/ dm2, any article being used in contact with food must meet this requirement. EN1186 also allows for reduction factors to be applied to fatty food. This is based on the fat content of the food and the ability of a particular foodstuff to extract component(s) out of an article in contact with food. Highly fatty foods such as oils have no reduction factors, while meats have a reduction factor of 4 and shelled roasted nuts have a reduction factor of 5. This means that even when the overall migration limit of 10mg/ dm2 is exceeded, the article may still be suitable for use depending on the type of food being handled.

This set of standards lays down what chemicals can be used to replicate the various food types as well as the methods used. There are four food stuffs defined: • Aqueous where plain water is used as the food simulant • Alcoholic where 10%, 20% or 50% ethanol solution is used as the food simulant • Acidic where 3% acetic acid solution is used as the food simulant • Fatty where various equivalents are used as the food stimulant. Typically these are iso-octane, 95% ethanol or vegetable oil Typically for gloves repeated extractions of 2 hours are carried out at 40°C to mimic repetitive transient contact.

EN ISO 374-1:2016+A1:2018 EN 374-1 is the standard for protective gloves against dangerous chemicals and micro-organisms. Gloves are tested in the palm (unless over 400mm in which case the cu is also tested) for permeation resistance against any of 18 speci ed chemicals. There are 3 types of chemical resistant gloves; Type A, Type B and Type C as detailed. The permeation performance levels are from 1-6, with 6 being the highest.

Standards Explained

EN ISO 374-1:2016 +A1:2018 Type A

EN ISO 374-1:2016 +A1:2018 Type C

EN ISO 374-1:2016 +A1:2018 Type B

EN ISO 374-5:2016

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Type A Passing a minimum level 2 permeation resistance against at least 6 chemicals. Code letters for chemicals shown under the pictogram.

Type C Passing a minimum

Type B Passing a minimum level 2 permeation resistance against at least 3 chemicals. Code letters for chemicals shown under the pictogram.

To claim chemical resistance (and micro -organism resistance) EN374-5 must also be passed which ensures the gloves do not leak when tested with air or water. Virus resistance can also be tested under EN374-5 and if passed the word Virus can be shown under the EN374-5 pictogram.

Chemical resistant gloves are also tested against EN374-4 which gives an indication of the degradation of the glove material in contact with the chemicals claimed under EN374-1.

level 1 permeation resistance against at least 1 chemical. No letters under the pictogram.

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