An occupational exposure limit (OEL) approach to protect home healthcare workers exposed to common nebulized drugs.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Frank E ; Ishau S ; Maier A ; Reichard JF ; Reutman S
• Description:
  Home healthcare is a growing area of employment. Assessment of occupational health risks to home health care workers (HHCWs) is important because in many cases the unique characteristics of the home environment do not facilitate the level of exposure control afforded to caregivers in hospitals and other fixed patient care sites. This assessment is focused on health risks to HHCWs from exposure to pharmaceutical drugs used to treat asthma and other respiratory diseases, which are commonly administered to patients in aerosolized form via nebulizers. We developed risk-based exposure limits for workers in the form of occupational exposure limits (OEL) values for exposure to nebulized forms of the three most common drugs administered by this method: albuterol, ipratropium, and budesonide. The derived OEL for albuterol was 2 µg/day, for ipratropium was 30 µg/day, and for budesonide was 11 µg/day. These OELs were derived based on human effect data and adjusted for pharmacokinetic variability and areas of uncertainty relevant to the underlying data (human and non-human) available for each drug. The resulting OEL values provide an input to the occupational risk assessment process to allow for comparisons to HHCW exposure that will guide risk management and exposure control decisions. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aerosols Asthma Asthma, Occupational Biopharmaceutics Health Personnel Home Care Services Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Respiratory System Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Nebulizer; Albuterol; Ipratropium; Budesonide; Acceptable Daily Exposure Or OEL; Pharmaceutical Risk Assessment Respiratory Irritants; Occupational Exposure; Occupational Exposure Limits; OELs; Home Health Care; Health Care Workers; Pharmaceuticals; Aerosols; Pharmacology; Asthma; Medicinal Chemicals;
• ISSN:
  0273-2300
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  251-261
• Volume:
  106
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20064849
• Citation:
  Regul Toxicol Pharmacol 2019 Aug; 106:251-261
• Contact Point Address:
  John F. Reichard, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Department of Environmental Health, 160 Panzeca Way, Cincinnati, OH, 45267-0056, USA
• Email:
  reichajf@ucmail.uc.edu
• CAS Registry Number:
  Budesonide (CAS RN 51333-22-3) ; Ipratropium (CAS RN 60205-81-4) ; Salbutamol (CAS RN 18559-94-9)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2019
• Performing Organization:
  University of Cincinnati
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology
• End Date:
  20260630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:df2d209898ca72028b3dc966ece3b8e0162204021ff26d11e888553d5c019cebc13a0679bee8e0cdf97bc54817084e6bd37d29f4c47737d5c5fe5c9005fe1857
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/248637/cdc_248637_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 344.67 KB ]