Current Issues on Handling Hazardous Drugs
It has been more than two decades, research and recommendations on safe handling of Hazardous Drugs and their harmful effects on lives due to contamination with the environment have been carried out.
There are so many evidences regarding the continued exposure of these drugs that have potential to cause immediate and long term negative effects on our lives.
However, people working in pharmaceutical industries, are much more vulnerable to their harmful effects.
This article contains a discussion on the current issues related to handling and minimizing the health risk of hazardous substances in the workplace.
As pharmaceutical and health care industries use many toxicants in the drug manufacturing process, these drugs pose a potential health risk to employees involved in preparation, administration and disposal courses.
The chemotherapy technique used for cancer treatment include medications that have serious harmful effects on persons monitoring them.
These medications are produced with due use of antineoplastic and cytotoxic agents, which causes various reproductive disorders, skin allergies and also cancer.
Healthcare industries have published guidelines to protect workers being exposed to these drugs.
The guidelines suggest that drugs leakage can be prevented by the use of engineering controls and work practices.
But contamination has been found on the outside of biological safety cabinets and on the floors around them even after the implementation of these guidelines.
Equipments are designed keeping patient safety in mind, and not health care worker protection.
There is frequent and persistent contamination of the environment where hazardous drugs are handled.
So, it is clear that such engineering controls cannot always control the hazards.
One closed-system device having a double-membrane system that traps drug aerosols and prevents leakage during drug transfers has been designed recently.
Several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of the closed-system device in reducing surface contamination.
But the system is not in common use because of its high cost.
As a result of all of these findings, there is new attention focused on the risks of health care workers who handle hazardous drugs.
The guidelines published for the safety of these workers needed to be reviewed and necessary steps should be taken out.
There are so many evidences regarding the continued exposure of these drugs that have potential to cause immediate and long term negative effects on our lives.
However, people working in pharmaceutical industries, are much more vulnerable to their harmful effects.
This article contains a discussion on the current issues related to handling and minimizing the health risk of hazardous substances in the workplace.
As pharmaceutical and health care industries use many toxicants in the drug manufacturing process, these drugs pose a potential health risk to employees involved in preparation, administration and disposal courses.
The chemotherapy technique used for cancer treatment include medications that have serious harmful effects on persons monitoring them.
These medications are produced with due use of antineoplastic and cytotoxic agents, which causes various reproductive disorders, skin allergies and also cancer.
Healthcare industries have published guidelines to protect workers being exposed to these drugs.
The guidelines suggest that drugs leakage can be prevented by the use of engineering controls and work practices.
But contamination has been found on the outside of biological safety cabinets and on the floors around them even after the implementation of these guidelines.
Equipments are designed keeping patient safety in mind, and not health care worker protection.
There is frequent and persistent contamination of the environment where hazardous drugs are handled.
So, it is clear that such engineering controls cannot always control the hazards.
One closed-system device having a double-membrane system that traps drug aerosols and prevents leakage during drug transfers has been designed recently.
Several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of the closed-system device in reducing surface contamination.
But the system is not in common use because of its high cost.
As a result of all of these findings, there is new attention focused on the risks of health care workers who handle hazardous drugs.
The guidelines published for the safety of these workers needed to be reviewed and necessary steps should be taken out.
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