Overview

OSHA has identified worker exposure to hazardous drugs as a problem of increasing health concern. Preparation, administration, manufacturing, and disposal of hazardous medications may expose hundreds of thousands of workers, principally in healthcare facilities and the pharmaceutical industry, to potentially significant workplace levels of these chemicals. Antineoplastic cytotoxic medications, anesthetic agents, anti-viral agents, and others, have been identified as hazardous. These hazardous medications are capable of causing serious effects including cancer, organ toxicity, fertility problems, genetic damage, and birth defects.

Employer programs should attend to several critical elements, including the infrastructure program and management requirements outlined in the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention General Chapters 797 and 800; the Oncology Nursing Society guidelines and staff work assignments and management to reduce/ remove hazards to conception, pregnancy, and breastfeeding arising from exposures to hazardous drugs.