Imagine trying to shield your workers from airborne chemicals without the benefit of air monitors, permissible exposure limits, ventilation designs, or certified, fit-tested respirators. No way to detect noxious fumes. No values by which to gauge safe levels. No assurance that workers’ equipment is actually protecting them. Talk about making your job difficult! Respiratory protection would be near impossible. Yet this is just what you’re up against trying to detect and control hidden hazards that get at workers through their skin.
More than 100 chemicals with OSHA permissible exposure limits for inhalation hazards are also known skin permeants. Like the effects of breathing toxic fumes, when one of these substances is absorbed into the blood stream through the skin, the result can be serious -kidney or liver disease, neurological or reproductive disorders, or cancer.