Surface sampling tests your safety
February 1, 2012 2 minutes read
Surface sampling tests your safety
No exposure levels set for drugs
Just how clean are your pharmacies and oncology units of contamination from chemotherapy agents and other hazardous drugs? That has been a vexing question, but now several companies are offering testing.
Environmental testing provides a way to monitor the effectiveness of safety procedures, says Bruce Cunha, RN, MS, COHN-S, manager of employee health and safety at the Marshfield (WI) Clinic. "We've been implementing personal protective equipment and protective processes and we think we do a very good job," he says. "[But] without being able to monitor the environment, it's hard to say if employees are being exposed."
In recent years, testing has been available from Exposure Control, a company based in the Netherlands (www.exposurecontrol.nl.) Hospitals and other health care facilities could use a wipe sample kit to test for cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide, 5-fluorouracil, methotrexate, etoposide, mitomycine C, and platinum compounds. The wipe samples must be frozen and shipped to the Netherlands, where they are analyzed.
Now a similar service is available in the United States. For example, R.J. Lee Group in Monroeville, PA, will provide consulting services that include sampling, full evaluation of drug handling processes, testing results and recommendations on minimizing the potential for exposures (www.rjlg.com). Health care facilities also could use a wipe kit to collect samples and use only the testing service, says industrial hygienist Matthew Zock, CIH.
"Commonly, we do see levels of the drugs we're testing for on environmental surfaces in hospitals," says Zock.
There are no minimum exposure levels for chemotherapy agents and other hazardous drugs. Zock recommends taking initial samples, then implementing a safe handling program. "You can use the environmental sampling and analysis as a tool to evaluate how those programs are working," he says.
ChemoGLO, a testing lab based in Chapel Hill, NC, provides sampling kits for five chemotherapy agents (docetaxel, paclitaxel, 5-Flourouracil, cyclophosphamide, and ifosfamide). The company suggests surface wipe sampling of the working area of the biological safety cabinet and compounding aseptic containment isolator, counter tops, the floor directly under the working area and patient administration areas (www.chemoglo.com).
While hospitals are most concerned about reducing their levels of contamination, they also can compare their results with the ChemoGLO database of findings from other facilities, says Bill Zamboni, founder and scientific adviser and an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Just how clean are your pharmacies and oncology units of contamination from chemotherapy agents and other hazardous drugs? That has been a vexing question, but now several companies are offering testing.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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