Publisher’s version / Version de l'éditeur:
Canadian Hospital, 38, 7, pp. 46-50, 1961-08-01
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Checking surgical gloves and conductive footwear
Morse, A. R.; Sereda, P. J.
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7
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N21t2-,1
n o . 1 2 5 i
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BI,DG
i
NATIONAT RESEARCH
COUNCIT
CANADA
CHECKING
SURGICAL
GLOVES
AND
CONDUCTIVE
FOOTWEAR
BY
A. R. MORSE
DIVISION OF RADIO AND ETECTRICAL
ENGINEERING
A N D
P. J. SEREDA
DIVISION OF BUITDING RESEARCH
A f ' I
A L Y E i D
REPRINTED FROIIA CANADIAN HOSPITAT
vol. 38, NO. 7, JUIY 196l , P.46-5O
TECHNICAL
PAPER
NO. 125
OF THE
DIVISION
OF BUILDING
RESEARCH
OTTAWA
A U G U S I 1 9 6 I N R C 6 4 4 8Sfin$
s57a6c
I lllllultru[uiroilurol
P R I C E I O C E N T S\
This publication is being distributed by the Diivision of Building Reseqrch of the Notionql Reseqrch Council. lt should not be rePro-duced in whole or in porf, without permission of the orQinol publisher. The Division would be glod to be of qssistqnce in obtoin-ing such permission.
Publicqtions of the Division of Building Reseqrch moy be obtqined by moiling the oppropriqle remillqnce (o Bonk, Express or Posl Office illoney Order or o cheque mode poyoble ot por in Otlowo, to the Receiver Generql of Conodo, credit Notionol Reseqrch Council) !o the Notionql Reseqrch Countil, Ottowo. Stomps qre nol occeptoble.
A coupon syslem hqs been introduced lo mqke pqymenls for publicotions relotively simple. Coupons qre qvqilqble in denominq-tions of 5, 25 ond 5O cenls, dnd moy be obtqined by mcking o re-millcnce qs indicoted qbove. These coupons mqy be used for the purchose of qll Nqtionql Rqseorch Council publicolions including specificotions of the Cqnqdiqn Govemmenl Specificotions Boqrd.
Checkiog S*grcal Gloves
and
Conductive Foot Wear
(a) It must be rugged.
(b) The indicating
A. R. Morse and P' J' Sereda' Ottawa
escape from the holes.
DeveloPment of a Glove Tester
solutions inside and out was measured. It was quicklY demon-strated that even very sma]I Pin-holes could be detected.
The requirements for a suitable electrical measuring device were then set out as follows:
to electricitY.) - x
3. There is a calibrating circuit'
trode to the other.
5. All areas of the glove "inspected".
6. The glove is not damaged are
by
reasonablY device must
* ,,Shock Haaarils of
Eleclri,c-c"iiiirili', i-.- R.- M 9.7se,
J ournal of
iti' ei'iti"ii"c
Institute ol Cunat'a'
Noaember 1959. 3
-distinct possibility that pinholes might be developed during this treatment as well as when the glove is being put on the hand.
that gloves having a resistance of Suitable devices based on relatively
simple circuits are already avaii_ able to do this from a normal alter_ nating current supply.
Discussion of Glove_Testingprocedure
container of stainless steel or other corrosion resistant metal may be used in place of the glass beaker, in which case the ,,solution elec_ trode" connection can then be made directly to the container.
The "body electrode', can be placed conveniently on the forearm and may be in the form of a brace_ Ipt. Alternatively, some part of the face might be held against a metal plate. If conductive footwear is be_ ing worn and has already been test_ ed to ensure that it is conductive, it may be sufficient to stand on a metal plate to which the .,body elec_ trode" lead has been connected. AII electrode.s cdn be made of stainless steel.
a
I N O I C A T I N G O E V I C E - r - " B o o y " E L E c T R o D Ec n a s s r s j ; ; 1 , s n
C A L I E R A T ES E N S I T I V I T Y A O J U S T R l S O L U T I O N E L E C T R O O E S O L U T I O N I N G L O V E S i G U f t E I G E N E R A L OUTLINE ; S A L T SOLUTTON I N B E A K E R O F G L O V E T E S T E RElectrical Circuit Requirements
suitable indicating device, makes it necessary to consider the use of a direct cu_rrent output, with amptin_ cation if necessary.
- . A n e o n g l o w t u b e u s e d a s a n i n _ dicating device would requir. tro* 3-0 to 300 microamperes and so should proba,bly be ruled out. ftre simplest solution is to use a d.c. mrcroameter direcfly, as the indi_ cating device, thus eliminating the need for
?.rqluy or amplifier tJpro_ duce the higher power levels neces_ sary to operate a light or a buzzer.
't'he provision of a direct current power supply presents no problems.
D I C d I L E N O R M A L S A L I N E F I G U R E ?
T E S T M E T H O D
"calrenare,\ L I I I I T I N G R E S I S T O R S \ R z S O L U T I O N E L E C T R O O E H 4 -F O R S U R G I C A L G L O V E SOnce all connections are made, the gloved hand may be lowered slowly into the solution in the beaker. The hand should be clench-ed several times and the fingers worked to make certain that the gloves are brought into contact with the hand at all points. If the glove has a.hole. the indicator will give warning. In some cases, the indica-tion may fluctuate as the hand is worked.
It is necessary to avoid sPurious indications resulting from acciden-tal wetting of the tops of the gloves. The bare forearm should not be in contact with a metal beaker, if one is used, or with a film of salt solu-tion on a glass beaker. The toP of the beaker above solution level
--should be dry. The gloved hand should be inserted without touch-ing the beaker, and should be stoP-ped while the solution is one or two inches frorn the toP of the glove. A continuous film of moisture extending between the solution sur-face and over the glove toP to the bare forearm might Provide suffi-cient conductivity to Produce a false indication of a Pinhole.
It was partly because of the Pos-sibility of there being creep of cur-rent over the toP of the glove that a nominal sensitivity of 10 meg-ohms (with an upper sensitivitY of 20 megohms) was suggested. This sensitivity level may help in other -
ways as well, to prevent sPurious signals, depending on the tYPe of
detector. It is worth mentioning,
even a "high resistance" hole will have low resistance in "pulses" if the glove is "worked" as suggested. In the opinion of the authors, how-ever, the nominal value of 10 meg is a preferable working figure.
D.C. Power Source
The circuit given in Fig' 3 and which is a modified ver'sion of the circuit used in a commercially avail-able "shoe tester", seems very good as a source of d.c. Power. The two 150K resistors limit the maximum current to 0.? milliamPere. This current can, under certain circum-stances, be felt bY Personnel, but is not really objectionable. Other re-sistance is used in series with the d.c. output as exPlained later.
Although it is not strictlY essen-tial to use the isolating trans-former, the authors believe this fea-ture should be included for two reasons. Both reasons are based on the possibility of the wearer of the glove being inadvertently in elec-trical contact with ground at the time of test. If such were the case, there would be a Possible bY-Pass circuit around R, and anY other re-sistor in series with R,. This con-dition would change the operating sensitivity of the instrument, and would expose the Person to the Pos-sibility of a higher bodY current than the design anticiPates. It is important that straY ground Paths be ,avoided, and this is one waY of being sure of achieving this during use.
Test Circuit
The glove tester circuit is shown i n F i g . 4 .
It is assumed that the detector will operate for a nominal glove re-sistance of 10 megohms. Two five-megohm resistors in series with the power supPlY will be used to Pro-iect personnel. Using the (approx') 200-volt d.c. suPPIY (see Fig. 3), the current sensitivity (or "short-circuit" current) will be 20 micro' amperes maximum. This circuit will not operate a neon light without
dicator would be, if anYthing, more satisfactorY. F I G . 3 D . C . P O W E R S U P P L Y F O R G L O V E T E S I E R 2 0 0 v 2 m e g e l e c t r o d e s D . C P o w e r S uS u p p l y 5 m e g ', r \A./v o . ( s e e F i g 3 ) F I G . 4 G L O V E T E S T E R C I R C U I T
M E T E R D I A L S F O R G L O V E
T E S T E R
a47
pt
-,t
ia\
R z r 5 0 K o- 25po d.c melerF I G . 5
5-,1-."
200v D . C . S u p p l y
F I G . 6 S H O E T E S T E R C I R C U I T gloves leads to a problem of using one device for both cases.
A satisfactory shoe tester circuit is given in Fig. 6, power being ob-tained, as for the glove tester, from a d.c. source such as is shown in Fig. 3.
Combination Glove and Shoe Tester A combination glove and shoe tester is shown in Fig. 7. The switch S, (actually mounted as a foot-operated switch on one of the shoe plate electrodes) enables the circuit to be switched from the preferred glove circuit to the pre-ferred shoe circuit. Note that on glove tester in Fig. 4; gives:
F O R C A N A D I A N R E Q U I R E M E N T S J. G. L. Walden of the Depart-ment of Veterans'Afairs for bring-ing to their attention the problem of the safe testing of conductive footwear. It is hoped that this ar-ticle will stimulate other hospital staffs to consider the suggested or other solutions to these prob-lems, working in conjunction with suppliers of operating room equip-ment. Safety against shock, while easily achieved, is absolutely essen-tial in the design of electrical glove and shoe testers that are used in direct contact with personnel.
Finally, a word of thanks to D. Fish, Ottawa ,Civic Hospital, and to 'L. McNamara, M. Davis, and H. F. Slade of N.R.'C. for their aid and comments. This joint con-tribution from the Division of Ra-dio and Electrical Engineering and the Division of Building Research of the National Research Council is published with the approval of the Directors of the Divisions, Dr. B.
G. Ballard
T. i
F.*Leseet.
Appendix
Alternate Electrical Circui,ts For
Use As Gloae Testers
Circuit No. z
This circuit is basically that used as a "proximity indicator" (see Radio Electronics, September 1960) or as an amplifier to develop sufficient energy to operato a povrer relay from an
.----This circuit provides:
If glove resistance : 0, short cir-c u i t cir-c u r r e n t : !Q pzx
If glove resistance : 5 megs., then current : 13 rra
If glove resistance : 10 megs., then current : 10 rra
If glove resistance : >10 megs., then current : (10 r,a
Hence, if 10 meg resistance is considered to be the glove fail point, then for a meter reading greater than 10 pa, the gloves are discard-ed; if five meg is decided on, from experience, then the glove fail point is 13 t a or greater. The meter can be marked in red for values above the fail point or it can be graduat-ed, as shown in one of the sketches in Fig. 5. Because at present there is insufficient experience to be too rigid, these alternatives are men-tioned. The authors believe that using 10 megohms as a fail point. yielding, for this circuit, u i0 *a current, is a good safe criterion.
Testing of Conductive Footwear Some conductive footwear testers that are at present sold on the Ca-nadian market use a light as an in-dicator. This method is not entirely satisfactory because it is desirable to indicate whether the resistance of the footwear is within certain limits defined by a maximum and a minimum, and this is not too easily handled by a light signal. (The requirement of a maximum and minimum resistance of foot_ wear is being considered at present for inclusion in codes.) A meter needle is a simple visual indicator that can fulfil these requirements. Assume that the requirements are:
Shoe resistance (two shoes in series) :
0 to 100,000 -too low 100K to 1 meg -satisfactory )1 meg -too high The circuit just discussed (as a
If shoe 'resistance : 0, short circuit current : If shoe resistance : 100K current
If shoe resistance : 1 meg current
If shoe resistance : )1 meg (o) current :
20 tla
1 9 . 8 t a
18 pa
0 rra
Note that all the signiflcant read-ings on the meter are between 18t a and 20r,a. This is far too nar-row a range to use on the meter. and in fact would be liable to error. Hence it is seen that the different levels of sensitivity for shoes and * po : m;icroamperes.
both S, and S, the shunt contacts must close first and open last.
Acknowled gements
The authors wish to thank the staff of the Canadian Forces Hos-pital at Kingston, Ontario, for arousing their interest in the prob-Iem of sterile glove testing, and
O - 2 O O p . o d . c S h o e R e s i s t o n c e M e t e r R e o d i n g s
o
2 O O p o roo Kr B o "
t M e t o o , ' > | M e g . < t o o 6-E
- M e t e r ( R e s i s l o n c e = 2 P O O f ) ) r
o - 2 5 p o d . c '
Circutt No' S
This circuit will not be shown'-but
i" lrsi"auv the same
T ":.i;:'jr#;rl
iil:i"'", l1,'T
*i,t"tn"ii"'iiu" to that
9 . 5 m e q S o l u l i o n E l e c l r o d e
O . 5 m e g
o*-l-.v- Shoe Electrode I S , ( P t " s t , f o r s h o e : } t e s l o n l y ) 200v D,C. SuPPtY ( s e e F i g 3 ) C l o s e t i r s t ' b r e o k l o s l
)
S h o e o n d / o r . b o d y e l e c l r o o e II
I
I
I
I
IF I G . 7 C O M B I N A T I O NGLOVE AND SHOE TESTER
shown in Rad.io Electronics' October
iliao, *ittt the proper safe'ty features
incorPorated. ohms. r R l 3 0 m e g Close 52 tor S e n s i i i v i t Y A d i u s l R 2 30 meq I { S t i s s w i t c h e d , c l o s e 5 2 o n d r e s e l P l ' Il reloy chotle.s, ssrtch 5l r o ' D e l o Y ' % R 3 lOmeg T o E l e c l / o o e s - 7 - : sHoF ;; o K ' o
