Health Hazards in Nursing
Occupational Health Hazards in the Medical Field
Kim Chastain
AB TECH
April 24, 2012
Abstract
Medical personnel come into contact with a complex variety of deadly toxins. Contact comes from industrial cleaners, sterilization products, radiation, medications, and mercury. Side effects of these toxic materials are known to lead to a variety of cancers, miscarriages, asthma, birth defects and metabolic syndromes. Government agencies have been negligent in protecting healthcare workers from exposures to these materials. There has never been a government-funded study of these materials and their impact on health and the environment; however independent studies have shown higher rates of disease in healthcare professionals and their children. According to Environmental Working Group (2007), of the 82,000 chemicals in record only around one hundred and eighty have been tested. Thousands of pollutants can be found in any medical setting yet only six have government workplace safety standards. Exposure standards fall to individual facilities to regulate, and vary wildly depending on facility understanding of these toxins. Continued training is recommended when new chemicals and equipment are changed. Healthcare facilities should also be tested on a yearly basis to identify areas of contamination to the employee and patient.
Keywords
Toxin, hazards, occupational disease
In 1970 President Nixon and Congress instituted OSHA to create a safe working environment and NIOSH (The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) to research workplace hazards. While OSHA and NIOSH have clear guidelines for common biohazard procedures, almost nothing exists for chemical and toxin exposures. From doctors and nurses to janitors and mail delivery, anyone who comes into contact with these toxins is at risk. The nature of the nurse or doctors exposure is two fold; consumer contaminates from home and industrial contaminates from work. Illnesses reported by medical
Kim Chastain
AB TECH
April 24, 2012
Abstract
Medical personnel come into contact with a complex variety of deadly toxins. Contact comes from industrial cleaners, sterilization products, radiation, medications, and mercury. Side effects of these toxic materials are known to lead to a variety of cancers, miscarriages, asthma, birth defects and metabolic syndromes. Government agencies have been negligent in protecting healthcare workers from exposures to these materials. There has never been a government-funded study of these materials and their impact on health and the environment; however independent studies have shown higher rates of disease in healthcare professionals and their children. According to Environmental Working Group (2007), of the 82,000 chemicals in record only around one hundred and eighty have been tested. Thousands of pollutants can be found in any medical setting yet only six have government workplace safety standards. Exposure standards fall to individual facilities to regulate, and vary wildly depending on facility understanding of these toxins. Continued training is recommended when new chemicals and equipment are changed. Healthcare facilities should also be tested on a yearly basis to identify areas of contamination to the employee and patient.
Keywords
Toxin, hazards, occupational disease
In 1970 President Nixon and Congress instituted OSHA to create a safe working environment and NIOSH (The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) to research workplace hazards. While OSHA and NIOSH have clear guidelines for common biohazard procedures, almost nothing exists for chemical and toxin exposures. From doctors and nurses to janitors and mail delivery, anyone who comes into contact with these toxins is at risk. The nature of the nurse or doctors exposure is two fold; consumer contaminates from home and industrial contaminates from work. Illnesses reported by medical
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