Developing tools for aiding skin protection

Skin protection is essential, but the efficacy of protective materials is limited. No polymer protective material constitutes a universal rampart against all chemical substances. In the working world, users of chemicals and occupational safety and health (OSH) specialists have limited means for choosing appropriate skin protections, and skin exposure risk prevention is difficult to implement.
INRS has developed a web tool in the form of the software ProtecPo (https://protecpo.inrs.fr). ProtecPo makes it possible to recommend protective materials that are appropriate for solvent users. Since it came on line in 2011, ProtecPo has recorded over 11,000 connections and 30,000 specific requests (statistical data extracted in February 2014).
The aim of this study is to facilitate skin risk prevention by continuing to develop tools for helping to choose appropriate protection. To this end, the ProtecPo computer tool will be implemented and apparatus for determining the resistance times of the protections will be developed and marketed (permeation kit). The kit will be complementary to the software and usable directly at the workplaces and by the OSH specialists. It will make it possible to validate the performance of skin protection equipment experimentally, depending on the actual conditions of use.
In addition to these technical tools, a survey will be conducted in the sectors of activity that use chemicals so as to assess practices and promote proper use of the protections. It will be possible to put exemplary actions in place at the workplaces to initiate a more comprehensive approach to preventing skin exposure risks.

Planned dissemination:
putting on line an updated version of the ProtecPo software, which will be enriched continuously with the results of the permeation tests;
marketing a compact permeation kit for companies that use chemicals and for OSH specialists;
presentations and publications for scientists, professionals, and OSH specialists.