With no approved local labs for PPE testing, B'luru firms send coveralls to Coimbatore

With the increase in demand and production of personal protective equipment (PPEs) across the country, South India Textiles Research Association (SITRA) in Coimbatore one of the four testing laboratories approved for testing and certifying PPEs is taking three to five days to test a sample.

According to the union health ministry, 50% of the country's coveralls come from Bengaluru. But since Karnataka has no approved testing lab for PPEs, city-based firms send it to SITRA for testing. SITRA has put up a list of coverall manufacturers and 24 are from Bangalore.

Coveralls are tested for blood penetration resistance. The 30-minute test is used to evaluate the resistance of materials used in protective clothing to penetration by synthetic blood under conditions of continuous liquid contact. Coveralls use woven, non-woven fabric, repellant finish, or anti-viral fabric.

Prakash Vasudevan, Director, SITRA, told DH, "Until April 30, we had to stop taking any additional PPE samples for testing because of the backlog. We resumed on Friday. We get a large number of samples from Bengaluru because the production capacity is high there with manufacturers producing close to 5,000 coveralls per day."

They are all given a Unique Certification Code after testing. "Those who have failed our tests are not part of the list of manufacturers for coveralls put up on our website," he said.

For each test conducted of fabric and the PPE coverall garment, for which prototype samples are sent by the respective manufacturers, a Unique Certification Code (UCC-COVID19) is generated. This code has records of the type of fabric, type of garment, its date of testing, testing standard and other relevant particulars.

"Normally, we would give the reports in 24 hours, but now it is three to five days because of the high number of samples. In the synthetic blood penetration resistance test, we see if any bodily fluids or blood is penetrating through the fabric. We run synthetic blood across the fabric with particular pressure. If the fabric allows it, then it has failed the test," he added.

The same test is carried out at the joints of the coverall as well if it lets in any liquid, it is considered failed. A lot of samples have failed and have passed only with the second or third try. "Bengaluru-specific analysis is yet to be done but 80% to 90% of samples have failed from across the country," he said.