Objectives: The objective of the work was to determine the resistance of selected protective clothing and glove materials to permeation of cytostatics such as docetaxel, fluorouracil, and doxorubicin.
Material and methods: The following glove materials were used: natural rubber latex (code A), acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber (code B) and chloroprene rubber (code C). In addition, we tested a layered material composed of a non-woven polyester (PES), a polypropylene (PP) film, and a non-woven PP used for protective coats (code D). The cytostatics were analyzed by liquid chromatography with diode array detection. The tested samples were placed in a purpose-built permeation cell modified to be different from that specified in the standard EN 6529:2001.
Results: The tested materials were characterized by good resistance to solutions containing 2 out of the 3 selected cytostatics: doxorubicin and 5-fluorouracil, as indicated by a breakthrough time of over 480 min. Equally high resistance to permeation of the third cytostatic (docetaxel) was exhibited by natural rubber latex, acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber, and chloroprene rubber. However, docetaxel permeated much more readily through the clothing layered material, compromising its barrier properties.
Conclusions: It was found that the presence of additional components in cytostatic preparations accelerated permeation through material samples, thus deteriorating their barrier properties. Int J Occup Med Environ Health 2018;31(3):341-350.
Keywords: cytostatic; docetaxel; doxorubicin; fluorouracil; permeation; protective materials.
This work is available in Open Access model and licensed under a CC BY-NC 3.0 PL license.