Overview
ISO 13982-2:2004 - Protective clothing for use against solid particulates, Part 2 - defines a laboratory test method to determine inward leakage of fine aerosol particles into chemical protective suits. The standard measures the barrier efficiency of suits against dry, fine dusts by generating a sodium chloride (NaCl) aerosol inside a test chamber while a human test subject performs a prescribed sequence of exercises. Results quantify how much aerosol penetrates into the suit (inward leakage) using flame photometry.
Key topics and technical requirements
- Test agent and particle size: Sodium chloride aerosol with a mass‑median aerodynamic diameter of about 0.6 µm (dry fine particles).
- Test principle: Generate a challenge concentration in a chamber; a test subject wearing the suit performs exercises while internal and external aerosol concentrations are sampled and compared to calculate inward leakage.
- Apparatus: Aerosol generator, one or two flame photometers, test chamber, treadmill (operating at 5 ± 0.5 km/h), sampling pumps and tubing.
- Sampling configuration:
- Three internal sampling probes fixed to underwear at right chest, back of waist, and lateral knee; one external probe for chamber challenge concentration.
- Probe tubing typically 4.0 mm internal diameter; sample flow from inside suit 2 ± 0.5 l/min (dilution may be required).
- Clean air is fed back into the suit at the same rate as sampling to avoid creating under‑pressure that would bias leakage results.
- Test sequence and exercises: Timed sequence of standing, walking (5 km/h) and controlled squatting (about five squats/min) with defined sampling intervals to capture inward leakage across activities.
- Test panel and repeatability: At least five test subjects and a minimum of two suits per person (≥10 suits total). Environmental conditions typically (20 ± 5) °C and relative humidity