Inhalation and skin exposure to chemicals in hospital settings.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bowers LN ; LeBouf, Ryan F. ; Virji, M. Abbas
• Description:
  Healthcare is one of the largest and fastest growing industries worldwide. It is complex and comprises different occupations directly providing healthcare services, and occupations providing other supporting services. The industry is changing rapidly with advances in medical science and new technologies. It faces new challenges stemming from changing demographics, migration, environmental and geopolitical instability, increased demand and cost of health services, and new disease outbreaks, all contributing to new hazards or exacerbating existing ones. A healthy healthcare workforce is central to sustain healthcare systems and for a prosperous society and economy. However, healthcare workers are exposed to a mixture of hazards that can include chemical (anesthetic gases), biological (pathogens), physical (radiation), ergonomic (musculoskeletal), psychosocial (stress), and safety hazards (violence). Chemical hazards arise from sources, such as cleaning, disinfecting, and sterilizing agents, solvents, glues, metals, hazardous drugs, laboratory chemical reagents, waste anesthetic gases, surgical smoke, and other indoor air contaminants. Working in healthcare is associated with a spectrum of adverse health outcomes including respiratory, reproductive, dermatologic, neurologic, other systemic outcomes, and cancer. These exposures and health hazards are preventable but continue to occur among healthcare workers in part because industry attention is focused on preventing healthcare-associated infections in patients caused by pathogens. Healthcare workers' exposures to chemicals is consequently not well recognized and disease prevention or exposure mitigation measures are not fully implemented. The focus of this review is to highlight inhalation and dermal exposures to chemicals among various occupations and units in healthcare and identify opportunities for exposure mitigation and disease prevention. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollution, Indoor Disinfectants Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Health Personnel Occupational Health Respiratory System Safety Skin
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Healthcare; Hospital; Chemical Exposures; Health Effects; Cleaning Products Health Care Facilities; Health Care Workers; Skin Exposure; Inhalation; Indoor Air Quality; IAQ; Cleaning Compounds; Disinfectants; Sterilizing Agents;
• ISBN:
  9789811051555
• Publisher:
  Springer
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Book
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  RHD - Respiratory Health Division
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-36
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20065218
• Citation:
  Handbook of indoor air quality. Zhang Y, Hopke PK, Mandin C eds. Singapore: Springer, 2022 Feb; :1-36
• Contact Point Address:
  M. Abbas Virji, Respiratory Health Division, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Morgantown, WV, USA
• Email:
  MVirji@cdc.gov
• Editor(s):
  Zhang Y; Hopke PK; Mandin C
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2022
• NORA Priority Area:
  Healthcare and Social Assistance
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Handbook of indoor air quality
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:04bea0ab60c24074f1950da946d5d12d5e51b62008c67f97929a5f0571577edabdb17efdd5284665b5b96a613920967afeaab5625b13c2a92eba828f691e7a41
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/249372/cdc_249372_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 363.80 KB ]