Antineoplastic Drug Exposure in an Ambulatory Setting: a Pilot Study

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Cancer Nurs
• Personal Author:
  Friese, Christopher R. ; McArdle, Cristin ; Zhau, Ting ; Sun, Duxin ; Spasojevic, Ivan ; Polovich, Martha ; McCullagh, Marjorie C.
• Description:
  Background
  
  Exposure to antineoplastic drugs confers health risks to workers, yet little is known about the exposure after a drug spill. Nor has the relationship between exposure and organizational factors such as staffing and work environment been studied.
  
  Objective
  
  To evaluate drug spills prospectively using biological measures and correlate drug spills with organizational factors.
  
  Methods
  
  Prospective questionnaires with 8-hour timed urine samples were collected from nursing and pharmacy personnel who reported a drug spill in one academic health center's infusion center. Urine was collected similarly from workers who did not report a spill. Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry techniques identified detectable drug levels. After the prospective sampling period, workers were surveyed on workloads, practice environment, and safety behaviors.
  
  Results
  
  From 81 eligible individuals, 40 participated in the prospective study and 19 completed retrospective questionnaires. Four spills were reported by 9 personnel as multiple employees were exposed to drug spills. Four participants who reported a spill showed detectable levels of antineoplastic drugs. Four participants who did not report a spill had detectable levels of docetaxel. Compared with respondents who did not report a spill, collegial relations with physicians were significantly poorer for workers who reported spills.
  
  Conclusions
  
  The study protocol successfully captured drug spill reports and biological samples. Workers have detectable levels of antineoplastic drugs through both drug spills and environmental contamination.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Article
• Source:
  Cancer Nurs. 38(2):111-117.
• Pubmed ID:
  24831047
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC4232489
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  P30CA46592/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States ; R00 NR010750/NR/NINR NIH HHS/United States ; R00NR010750/NR/NINR NIH HHS/United States ; T42OH008455/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States
• Volume:
  38
• Issue:
  2
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:0398abc96a70f0d8d00ca72e69c63b68218d00b2b031cb75fe739ae75829859b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/30176/cdc_30176_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 178.07 KB ]