Glutaraldehyde permeation: choosing the proper glove.

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.