NIOSH considers new glutaraldehyde limit
Agency asks for info on disinfectant use
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is considering a revision to its glutaraldehyde recommended exposure limit (REL) and has issued a Federal Register notice asking for information on glutaraldehyde research, use, safety training, and manufacture (edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/E9-22299.htm).
OSHA doesn't have an exposure limit for glutaraldehyde, a substance that can cause occupational asthma, skin irritation, and other symptoms, although about 10 states with their own occupational health programs maintain permissible exposure limits. For example, in 2006, California reduced its permissible exposure limit from 0.2 parts per million (ppm) to 0.05 ppm.
In 1998, the American Conference of Governmental Hygienists (ACGIH) lowered its threshold limit value (TLV) ceiling limit - the level that cannot be exceeded during a workshift - for glutaraldehyde from 0.2 ppm to 0.05 ppm. However, the NIOSH recommended exposure limit remains at 2 ppm.
OSHA attempted to set a limit for glutaraldehyde exposure, but in 1992 the 11th Circuit Court overturned the agency's air contaminants standard, which would have revised some exposure limits and added a couple hundred new ones. Since then, OSHA has relied on voluntary compliance.
"We will be performing a risk assessment and deciding whether our recommended exposure limit is protective enough," says T.J. Lentz, PhD, chief of the document development branch at NIOSH in Cincinnati. "We realize it's an effective [disinfectant] in hospitals and, in many cases, specialists like to use it for its effectiveness. But we've got to make sure that if its use continues that it's used safely."
NIOSH will look into other interventions such as engineering controls, training, and personal protective equipment, he says. For example, closed sterilizing systems lead to less exposure.
The NIOSH move was well received by groups that have long expressed concerns about hazardous substances in hospitals. "We're very encouraged that this appears to be a step in the direction of protecting worker health," says Catherine Galligan, MS, project manager with the Sustainable Hospitals Program at the University of Massachusetts - Lowell. "There's a lot of well-established information in the literature that this is an area that needs attention."
Galligan notes that hospitals need to be cautious if they select alternative sterilants or disinfectants. "Often the alternatives look favorable based on an absence of information," she says. But the use of the new product needs to be monitored, and employee health professionals should keep up with the literature as the new products are studied.
[Editor's note: Comments can be sent for docket number NIOSH 186 through Dec. 14 by e-mail: ([email protected]), fax: (513) 533-8285, or mail to NIOSH Docket Office, Robert A. Taft Laboratories, MS-C34, 4676 Columbia Parkway, Cincinnati, OH 45226.]
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is considering a revision to its glutaraldehyde recommended exposure limit (REL) and has issued a Federal Register notice asking for information on glutaraldehyde research, use, safety training, and manufacture.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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