When I am diving it, I avoid as many chemicals as possible (lotions, sun screen, hair products, etc.)
A while ago, people diving Whites dry suits around the world were plagued by problems with latex seals. I later learned that the problems were happening with a number of brands--the Whites owners were just a lot more vocal about it. The symptoms were different from the dry rot described by the OP. Without any warning, a section of the seal wold turn gooey. Once that happened, your seal was done and needed to be replaced. The explanations offered by the manufacturers all blamed chemical contamination. (Te fault of the user, of course--another way of saying "not our problem.") The two most often named suspects were petroleum from outboard engines floating on the surface and, believe it or not, copper from handling pennies. (People from Australia, which has no copper coins, called BS on that one.)
Everyone I knew was having the problem. The dive shop where I worked lost all the seals on all their suits in a matter of months. Frustrated, I took some seals, cut them into squares, and contaminated them with everything I could think of that could ever come into contact with seals. I tried copper, petroleum products, different suntan lotions, shaving cream--everything. I gave the contaminant being tested prolonged, concentrated contact. The results?
Not a single contaminant I tried had any noticeable effect on the latex. The latex tested came out of the test as good as new in every case.
I talked with two Ph.D chemists about it, and they both said the same thing. They said the contaminants suggested by the manufacturers were so clearly wrong that they had to know it and should be ashamed for suggesting it. They said that based on what I described to them, the most likely blame for the problem lay with the manufacturer. Creating latex is a chemical process, and they said the seal manufacturer must have been using faulty procedures in making the latex. They both said the problem sounded to them like the chemical structure of the latex was breaking down because it was not properly created in the first place.
It should be noted that dry suit manufacturers do not make their seals. They purchase them from a separate seal making company, and multiple dry suit manufacturers use the same seal makers. It should also be noted that I have not heard of anyone having that problem for several years. Apparently they are getting it right now.
As I said, this problem is different from the OP's. My purpose in this post was to detail how my experiments showed no bad effects from any of the common potential contaminants I tested.
