A pilot study to determine medical laser generated air contaminant emission rates for a simulated surgical procedure

Details

• Personal Author:
  Breskey J ; Conroy L ; Esmen N ; Franke J ; Lacey SE ; Lippert JF ; Liu L ; Lopez R
• Description:
  The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) estimates that half a million health-careworkers are exposed to laser surgical smoke each year. The purpose of this study was to establish a methodology to (1) estimate emission rates of laser generated air contaminants (LGACs) using an emission chamber, and to (2) perform a screening study to differentiate the effects of three laser operational parameters. An emission chamber was designed, fabricated, and assessed for performance to estimate the emission rates of gases and particles associated with LGACs during a simulated surgical procedure. Two medical lasers (Holmium Yttrium Aluminum Garnet [Ho:YAG] and carbon dioxide [CO2]) were set to a range of plausible medical laser operational parameters in a simulated surgery to pyrolyze porcine skin generating plume in the emission chamber. Power, pulse repetition frequency (PRF), and beam diameter were evaluated to determine the effect of each operational parameter on emission rate using a fractional factorial design. The plume was sampled for particulate matter and seven gas phase combustion byproduct contaminants (benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide): the gas phase emission results are presented here. Most of the measured concentrations of gas phase contaminants were below their limit of detection (LOD), but detectable measurements enabled us to determine laser operation parameter influence on CO2 emissions. Confined to the experimental conditions of this screening study, results indicated that beam diameter was statistically significantly influential and power was marginally statistically significant to emission rates of CO2 when using the Ho:YAG laser but not with the carbon dioxide laser; PRF was not influential vis-a-vis emission rates of these gas phase contaminants. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollutants, Occupational Air Pollution, Indoor Benzene Formaldehyde Health Personnel Occupational Health Safety Smoke Solvents Toluene Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Air-contamination Benzenes Emission-sources Formaldehydes Health-care-personnel Lasers Medical-personnel Smoke-inhalation Surgery Toluenes Work-environment Workers

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• ISSN:
  1545-9624
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; Illinois ; Indiana ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  11
• Issue:
  6
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20044284
• Citation:
  J Occup Environ Hyg 2014 Jun; 11(6):D69-D76
• Contact Point Address:
  Julia Lippert 2121 W. Taylor, Chicago, Illinois, 60612
• Email:
  jlippc2@uic.edu
• CAS Registry Number:
  Benzene (CAS RN 71-43-2) ; Carbon dioxide (CAS RN 124-38-9) ; Carbon monoxide (CAS RN 630-08-0) ; Ethylbenzene (CAS RN 100-41-4) ; Formaldehyde (CAS RN 50-00-0) ; Hydrogen cyanide (CAS RN 74-90-8) ; Toluene (CAS RN 108-88-3)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2014
• Performing Organization:
  University of Illinois at Chicago
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• End Date:
  20290630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:9c14b102efe859f44761e9ba09a11ab6c596f362bcde5a50a0bb9675a028a6f5c7df6fa46f017a2027b7f1d9af8ffe1f2a232f36dec84b9e7ded34083bc0e15a
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/200021/cdc_200021_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 255.21 KB ]