[LabRat01]

Often in the lab I handle acetone, methanol, ethyl acetate, cyclohexane and methylene chloride and somtimes spill some by accident onto my hands, I normally always use two pairs of nitrile gloves (on top of eachother, so about 0.22 mm, or 9.5 mils thick).

Will this give me protection in the event of a splash/few drops (well I guess less than 1 ml, and less than 30 second conact time) for the above mentioned chemicals?


Or should I be using different gloves? I dont like using thicker ones because I can't feel anything and they make me clumsy and more likely to have an accident.


EDIT: I checked the glove manufactuers website, they have stated the breakthrough times for cyclohexane, methanol and acetone, all off which are greater than a minute, but they haven't said anything about ethylacetate or methylene chloride?

[OC pro]

Ethylacetate is safe but dichloromethane is penetrating through it very fast. Acetone kind of dissolves the nitril gloves. If you spill something just change the gloves immediately. And: don´t panic too much.

[nj_bartel]

DCM is nothing to panic about.  Just swap your gloves if you spill some on them.

[pacifyer]

I must confess I handled all those with bare hands... Methanol is bad: it is poison, and can produce blindness. The carbonyl compounds mainly degrease your skin, so they can give you dry hands, but they are not that bad. The worst is DCM: if a little comes in contact with your skin together with metal (as in a ring, or watch, for instance) a burning sensation appears in the skin. It is just the sensation, but certainly is very unpleasant.

Also, you do not want to breath vapors from any of these guys. Avoid it, keeping your breath, if possible. They will not kill you immediately, but their damaging effect adds in time.

[superfly]

Hi, I have same questions as yours. After working in the lab for 2 years, my hand become dry and even cracking. The physician said I have hand eczema and asked me not to wear gloves all the time.....which is ridiculous~~. I try some very thick gloves but it's hard to work with them plus they make my hand worse as they are more airtight.

And I'm not working in a rich lab....I cannot change gloves each time I spill~ I just remove them and wait until the solvent evaporated then reuse~~

Now I'm looking for gloves that have longer breakthrough time and not too airtight~

[Doc Oc]

Superfly, I have the same skin problem, and it's not possible (or wise) to stop wearing gloves.  Keep some hand moisturizer at your desk and when you take your gloves off apply a little bit.  Wait for it to dry before putting your gloves back on or they will slip around on your fingers.

[Borek]

After working in the lab for 2 years, my hand become dry and even cracking. The physician said I have hand eczema and asked me not to wear gloves all the time...

Most likely your problem is not with solvents passing through the gloves, just your skin is too delicate. My wife needs to use latex gloves now and then (not against solvents, she is not a chemist) and - especially in winter - that is disastrous for her. I will spare you details.