EN ISO 21420:2020

PROTECTIVE GLOVES – General requirements and test methods

This standard supersedes EN420:2003+A1:2009. The scope of this standard includes not only protective gloves and arm protectors, but also gloves permanently incorported in containement enclosures, mittens and pot holders.
The requirements of this standard needs to be satisfied for all protective gloves for all categories of PPE.

Some of the requirements in this standard are:

- glove design

- chemical innocuousness

- sizing and dexterity

- information supplied by the manufacturer

Chemical innocuousness is considered to ensure that the gloves not adversaly affect the health of hygiene of the wearer.

The requirements include:

- Chromium VI – applicable to all leathers; shall be less than 3mg/kg

- Nickel release – applicable to metallic components in prolonged contact with skin; less than 0.5µg/cm2/week

- pH value – applicable to all materials; requirement: pH value is to be greater than 3.5 and less than 9.5. Each material must be tested separately

- Azo colourants – applicable to all dyed leathers and textiles. Requirement: less than 30mg/kg for each of the carcinogenic aromatic amines listed in the analysis methods

- Dimethylformamide (DMFa) – applicable to all materials containing polyurethane (PU); less than 1,000mg/kg (1% w/w)

- Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) – applicable to rubbers and plastics in direct contact with the skin. Shall be less than 1mg/kg of each of the eight restricted PAHs.

The standard also requires compliance with restricted substances legislation, such as REACH (Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006) Annex XVI.

Sizing is defined based on the hand sizes that gloves are intended to fit. The sizes outlined under this standard cover the range of size 4 to size 13. The criterias to determine sizing compliance includes hand circumference and hand length.