Physico-chemical characterisation of surface defects on chemically protective gloves used in agriculture

摘要

Australian agriculture is largely dependent on the use of pesticides. Many pesticidesudhave detrimental effects on human health, and consequently occupational exposureudpresents a serious problem. Pesticide application can be dangerous work and farmersudrely on chemical protective clothing to provide a bather to dermal exposure. Handsudare one of the most often contaminated anatomical sites and therefore gloves areudperhaps the most important item of protective apparel.udThe principal objective of this thesis is to ascertain the types of chemically protectiveudgloves that are used in agriculture, and to determine if these gloves are suitable forudeffective protection against chemical exposure to farmers. The hypothesis that evolvedudfrom this objective is:udThat, due to poor quality control, no protocols in glove care and patchyudpromotion of their usage, I predict that chemically protective gloves areudinadequate for farmers' needs.udThe aims that have evolved from the hypothesis are:ud1. to find out what types of protective gloves are being worn by farmers duringudpesticide application, and to determine the condition, age and maintenance regime ofudthese gloves;ud2. to identify and classify the microscopic physical surface defects that occur in newudand used gloves and those exposed to simulated field conditions and to compare themudstatistically;ud3. to compare the surface chemical composition of new gloves, used gloves and thoseudsubjected to simulated field exposure;ud4. to determine if gloves used by farmers are suitable for use in the outdoorudenvironment; andud5. to describe the progress of degradation in gloves exposed to the outdoors touddetermine their suitability for use outdoors and their life expectancy.udThe sampling area was restricted to Tasmania, and although this state is not completelyudrepresentative of the whole of Australian agriculture, it nevertheless encompasses audwide variety of agricultural production.