subject: Fatal Effects of Occupational Exposures to Hazardous Drugs [print this page] Fatal Effects of Occupational Exposures to Hazardous Drugs
In the manufacture of medicines, lots of hazardous drugs are used that can be very fatal for the mankind. The healthcare staffs can be exposed to drug exposures during any of the drug related activities that includes drug manufacture, transport and distribution, use in health care or home care settings and waste disposal. With the use of antineoplastic and cytotoxic drugs expanding into other specialties, the number of workers who are not properly trained in their safe handling has increased over the past few decades.
There are numbers of evidences related to occupational exposure in healthcare staffs. Healthcare workers engaged in the preparation and administration of hazardous drugs has higher indications of mutagenic substances in their urine as compared to the non-exposed workers. These evidence are supported by several studies examining chromosomal aberrations, urine mutagenecity, sister chromatid exchanges, and other endpoints in studies of healthcare workers and nurses who handle these drugs.
Surveys have associated workplace exposures to perilous drugs with short term health effects such as hair loss, headaches, skin and eye irritation, hypersensitivity, as well as adverse reproductive outcomes including infertility, congenital malformations, spontaneous abortions and other abnormalities. A recent study documented learning disabilities in the children of healthcare staffs who had handled antineoplastic and cytotoxic drugs during the course of their employment. Healthcare units suggest that the undesirable effects found in many of these studies occurred because medical workers do not properly adopt the safe handling guidelines promoted by them.
Strict adherence to all the safety guidelines and measures formulated by different healthy organizations can minimize the fatal effects of occupational exposures to hazardous drugs.
