Preventing Occupational Exposures to Antineoplastic Drugs in Health Care Settings

Details

• Personal Author:
  Connor, Thomas H. ; McDiarmid MA
• Description:
  The toxicity of antineoplastic drugs has been well known since they were introduced in the 1940s. Because most antineoplastic drugs are nonselective in their mechanism of action, they affect noncancerous as well as cancerous cells, resulting in well-documented side effects. During the 1970s, evidence came to light indicating health care workers may be at risk of harmful effects from antineoplastic drugs as a result of occupational exposure. Since that time, reports from several countries have documented drug contamination of the work-place, identified drugs in the urine of health care workers, and measured genotoxic responses in workers. Evidence also exists of teratogenic and adverse reproductive outcomes and increased cancers in health care workers. During the past 30 years, professional organizations and government agencies have developed guidelines to protect health care workers from adverse effects from occupational exposure to antineoplastic drugs. Although many safety provisions were advanced to reduce worker exposure in the 1980s, recent studies have shown that workers continue to be exposed to these drugs despite safety policy improvements. In 2004, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) published an alert reviewing the most recent information available and promoting a program of safe handling during their use. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Hazardous Substances Health Personnel Neoplasms Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety
• Keywords:
  Cancer Drugs Genotoxic-effects Genotoxicity Health-care Health-care-personnel Occupational-exposure Risk-analysis Risk-factors Toxic-effects Toxins Worker-health Workers

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• ISSN:
  0007-9235
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DART - Division of Applied Research and Technology
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  354-365
• Volume:
  56
• Issue:
  6
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20031368
• Citation:
  CA Cancer J Clin 2006 Nov-Dec; 56(6):354-365
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2007
• NORA Priority Area:
  Research Tools and Approaches: Exposure Assessment Methods
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:5096063c945a95db64f537d125ec2755e92991aad40127d296b4c482ce0d9664f3ba2897e537127606e6aa75bf4d727148e25cdd9293a372ffe6d4791e79e812
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/191633/cdc_191633_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 252.39 KB ]