RESUMEN
Four industrial hygiene monitoring methods were studied in the laboratory and in a hospital to evaluate their effectiveness in measuring glutaraldehyde concentrations in ambient air. The sampling devices evaluated included a silica gel tube, a direct reading handheld glutaraldehyde meter, a DNPH- (2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine) impregnated passive diffusion badge, and a DNPH-impregnated filter cassette. The accuracy and precision of the different methods were determined in the laboratory. The methods were evaluated using dynamically generated glutaraldehyde air concentrations over the range of 0.05-0.4 ppm. The badge, silica gel tube, and filter cassette methods were found to be accurate under controlled laboratory conditions. The handheld meter did not respond to the glutaraldehyde test atmospheres. The methods were compared in a hospital environment. During the hospital study the performance of the handheld meter could not be demonstrated because the concentrations of glutaraldehyde were below or only slightly above the manufacturer's stated 0.03 ppm limit of detection. Statistically significant differences were found between the badge, silica gel tube, and filter cassette methods, but the differences were small enough to be acceptable for industrial hygiene monitoring.
Asunto(s)
Contaminación del Aire Interior/análisis , Monitoreo del Ambiente/instrumentación , Glutaral/análisis , Exposición Profesional/análisis , Cromatografía Líquida de Alta Presión , Monitoreo del Ambiente/métodos , Ionización de Llama , Hospitales , Humanos , Modelos Lineales , Exposición Profesional/prevención & control , Fenilhidrazinas , Gel de Sílice , Dióxido de Silicio , Evaluación de la Tecnología BiomédicaRESUMEN
Six different gloves were tested with five different aqueous glutaraldehyde formulations to determine each glove's resistance to permeation. When tested against 2% or 3.4% glutaraldehyde solutions, nitrile rubber, butyl rubber, a synthetic surgical glove, and polyethylene were each impermeable for at least 4 hours. The two latex gloves tested showed glutaraldehyde breakthrough at 45 minutes. When the latex gloves were doubled, the time to first breakthrough increased to 3 to 4 hours. With 50% glutaraldehyde, only butyl rubber and nitrile rubber were impermeable for extended periods. The surgical synthetic glove had breakthrough at 1 hour, whereas polyethylene and the two latex gloves had breakthrough in less than 1 hour.