Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-90-155-2169: HCA Wesley Medical Center; Wichita, Kansas

Details

• Personal Author:
  Decker, John A. ; Lenhart, Steven W.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to a request from the respiratory therapist educator of HCA Wesley Medical Center (SIC-8062), Wichita, Kansas, an evaluation was made of methods used to control exposures of respiratory therapists and nurses to aerosolized ribavirin (36791045). The facility had about 3000 full time and part time workers. The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, where ribavirin is sometimes used, had 18 beds. Three visits were made to the site. During the first visit exposures of therapists and nurses to ribavirin was monitored during aerosol administration with infant mannequins. Area samples were collected within the Care Cube disposable hoods used for administration of ribavirin, beside beds to which the hoods were located, and at a location where no exposure was expected. Personal exposure monitoring was conducted for four respiratory therapists and two nurses. Additional measurements were taken on the second and third visits. The author concludes that notable concentrations of aerosolized ribavirin were present in the rooms where the drug was administered despite the addition of a scavenging system to the Care Cube disposable hood. High efficiency air purifying respirators approved by NIOSH/MSHA and assigned to employees based on the results of quantitative fit tests were found to reduce exposures to the limit of detection of the analytical method used. The author recommends that the use of these respirators continue and that a complete respiratory protection program be initiated at this site.
• Subjects:
  Biopharmaceutics Health Personnel Hospitals Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Respiratory Protective Devices Safety Teratogenesis
• Keywords:
  Care Workers General Medical And Surgical Hospitals Hazard-Confirmed Health Health-care-personnel HETA-90-155-2169 NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report Nursing Occupational-exposure OSHA Region 7 Pharmaceuticals Respirators Respiratory-protective-equipment Ribavirin Teratogens Workplace Protection Factors

  More +
• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA901552169
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Kansas ; OSHA Region 7
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  29 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Fox, Debra
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00205030
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB92-164227
• Citation:
  Cincinnati, Ohio: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, HETA 90-155-2169, 1991 Dec ; :1-33
• CAS Registry Number:
  Ribavirin (CAS RN 36791-04-5)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1992
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  8062 - General medical & surgical hospitals - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a684d5b152f4c6eccf62334ae7f8bb291142598662ec9b2b814361bf256bc10792d83bfc618526beaddb0c732b31d0f2c0755941b1d2dd08242c7a99babca7bc
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171616/cdc_171616_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 201.38 KB ]