Acute effects: Usually immediate, obvious, short-term responses to exposure to a hazard. They can be localised to one part of the body or they can be systemic.
Acute Toxicity: The adverse effects resulting from a single (or small number) dose or exposure to a substance.
Allergic: Unusual sensitiveness and reaction.
Breakthrough Time: The time elapsed between initial contact of a chemical with the outside surface of a protective clothing material and the time at which the chemical can be detected at the inside surface of the material
Carcinogenic: Capable of causing cancer.
Chemical Protective Clothing: An item of clothing used to isolate parts of the body from direct contact with a potentially hazardous chemical.
Chronic Effects: Develop over time with symptoms developed years after the exposure occurred. Chronic conditions can result from a short exposure, or from repeated contact with a substance or work process.
Chronic Toxicity: Adverse effects resulting from repeated doses of or exposures to a substance over a relatively prolonged period of time
Corrosive: A liquid or solid that causes visible destruction or irreversible alterations in human skin tissue at the site of contact.
Cross-Contamination: The transfer of a chemical contaminant from on person, piece of equipment, or area to another that was previously not contaminated with that substance.
Dangerous goods: substances that may be corrosive, flammable, explosive, spontaneously combustible, toxic, oxidising, or water-reactive. These goods can be deadly and can seriously injure or kill people, damage property and the environment.
Degradation: A deleterious change in one or more properties of a protective glove material due to contact with the chemical.
Dermal Toxicity: Adverse effects resulting from skin exposure to a substance. Effects may be local or result from absorption through the skin (systemic).
Dermatitic: Cause of inflammation to the skin.
Fibrogenic: Inducing tissue injury and fibrosis (scarring).
Hazardous Chemical: According to OSHA, a hazardous chemical is a chemical for which there is statistically significant evidence based on at least one study conducted in accordance with established scientific principles that acute or chronic health effects may occur in exposed employees.
Health Hazard: Includes chemicals which are carcinogens, toxic or highly toxic agents, reproductive toxins, irritants, corrosives, sensitizers, hepatotoxins, nephrotoxins, neurotoxins, agents which act on the hematopoietic systems, and agents which damage the lungs, skin, eyes, or mucous membranes (per OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1200
Incompatible: Used to describe materials that could cause dangerous reactions and the release of energy from direct contact with another material.
Irritant: A substance, which is not a corrosive, but which causes a reversible inflammatory effect on living tissue by chemical action at the sight of contact as a function of concentration and duration of exposure
Local effects: Occur when the hazardous agent comes into contact with or enters the body.
Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS): Information sheets (required by OSHA) containing data on a chemical’s physical properties, health hazards, toxic effects, fire hazards, etc.
Mutagenic: Capable of causing damage to genes.
Mutagen: Any substance that can cause a change (mutation) in the genetic material of a living cell.
Neurotoxic: A chemical which is destructive or deadly to nerves or nervous tissue.
Pathogen: An agent, such as a bacteria, that can cause disease.
Penetration: Movement of a chemical through porous materials, seams, pinholes or other imperfections in a glove material on a non-molecular level.
Permeation: Process by which a chemical moves through a protective glove material on a molecular level.
Permeation Rate: As related to personal protective clothing, the amount of chemical that permeates through a protective material per unit area, per unit time; often given in micrograms per square centimeter per minute (g/cm2/min.).
Poisonous: May destroy life or injure health by rapid action even when taken in small quantity.
Reaction: A chemical transformation or change; the interaction of two or more substances to form new substances.
Route of Entry: The method by which a material enters the body; includes absorption (eye or skin contact), ingestion, and inhalation.
Sensitising: Capable of causing allergic reactions.
Systemic effects: Occur inside the body once a hazardous agent has entered the body.
Target Organ Effects: Chemically caused effects from exposure to a material on specifically listed organs and systems, such as the liver, kidneys, central nervous system, lungs, skin, and eyes.
Toxicity: The sum of adverse effects resulting from exposure to a material. (See also Acute Toxicity and Chronic Toxicity).
