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Expanding Role of Hospital Epidemiology: Employee Health—Chemical Exposure in the Health Care Setting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 June 2016

William A. Rutala  and
Bruce H. Hamory
William A. Rutala*
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina, and the Department of Hospital Epidemiology North Carolina Memorial Hospital, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Bruce H. Hamory
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania
*
Division of infectious Diseases. 547 Burnett-Womack CB# 7030, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7030
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Extract

Health care workers are exposed to a vast array of health and safety hazards, unsurpassed by any other service industry and perhaps unequaled by industry in general. These hazards include exposure to biological agents, physical agents, stress, injury and chemical agents.

The hospital environment abounds with hazardous chemical agents. A hospital survey conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) found at least 135 chemicals recognized as carcinogens, teratogens, mutagens, or which have some combination of these effects in humans or animals. Another 179 chemicals found in hospitals are primary irritants of the skin or eyes. Although employee risks associated with chemicals have been neglected all too frequently, attention finally is being directed to assessing and reducing these risks. Among the toxic substances that present health hazards to health care providers are disinfecting and sterilizing compounds, chemotherapeutic agents and anesthetic gases.

Type
Program Summaries
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 10 , Issue 6 , June 1989 , pp. 261 - 266
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1989

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