HETA #2000-0402-3021, Inova Fairfax Hospital, Falls Church, Virginia

Details

• Personal Author:
  King, Bradley S. ; McCullough, Joel E.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  On August 21, 2000, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) received a confidential employee request for a health hazard evaluation at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia. The request noted concerns from surgery department employees in regard to exposure to compounds found in surgical smoke and respiratory symptoms and headaches thought to be associated with such exposure. In March 2001, NIOSH investigators conducted a site visit to the facility and met with management and employee representatives. A return site visit was made in May 2001. A questionnaire regarding symptoms potentially associated with exposure to surgical smoke byproducts was distributed to employees of the surgery department. Personal breathing zone and area air samples were collected during 15 procedures over 3 days for compounds commonly found in surgical smoke plume. These substances included volatile organic compounds (including benzene, toluene, and xylene), acrolein, phenol, cresols, hydrogen cyanide, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, polycyclic aromatic compounds, and carbon monoxide. Although exposures to chemical compounds above the permitted or recommended limits were not identified, low concentrations of compounds found in surgical smoke may be sufficient to cause irritative effects on the eyes and mucous membranes, especially in sensitive individuals. In fact, greater than half of employees surveyed associated at least one symptom with exposure to surgical smoke and most employees surveyed found the odor associated with surgical smoke annoying and/or objectionable. Although not studied in this evaluation, past NIOSH research has also shown the possibility of mutagenic airborne particulates being present in surgical smoke. The use of engineering controls such as a smoke evacuator is recommended to reduce the levels of surgical smoke in the operating rooms.
• Subjects:
  Asthma Asthma, Occupational Eye Foreign Bodies Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Health Personnel Hospitals Irritants Occupational Health Operating Rooms Safety
• Keywords:
  Acetaldehyde Asthma Symptoms Electrocautery Eye-irritants Eye Irritation Formaldehyde General Medical And Surgical Hospitals Hazard-Unconfirmed Health-care-facilities Health-care-personnel Hospitals Laser Nurses Operating-rooms OSHA Region 3 Respiratory-irritants Surgeons Surgery Surgical Smoke Throat Irritation Toluene

  More +
• Source:
  Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, HETA 2000-0402-3021, 2006 Nov ; :1-25
• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA200004023021
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Virginia ; OSHA Region 3
• 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:
  31 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Galloway, Ellen ; Gwin, Kristin ; McCleery, Robert E. ; Smith, Robin
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20031234
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2007-103056
• CAS Registry Number:
  Benzene (CAS RN 71-43-2) ; Toluene (CAS RN 108-88-3) ; Xylene (CAS RN 1330-20-7) ; Acrolein (CAS RN 107-02-8) ; Phenol (CAS RN 108-95-2) ; Hydrogen cyanide, liquefied (CAS RN 74-90-8) ; Formaldehyde (CAS RN 50-00-0) ; Acetaldehyde (CAS RN 75-07-0) ; Carbon monoxide (CAS RN 630-08-0)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2007
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  8062 - General medical & surgical hospitals (SIC) ; 622110 - General Medical and Surgical Hospitals - (NAICS)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7961fc9b2e92a7583e8c2ef0ee5e578f708ab0c20c9fc4a3fad32105d870bc281c2392006e98a50719dee5610a216c1021324903b306654f840d35788039c7af
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/172609/cdc_172609_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 397.12 KB ]