Nurses at Risk Due to Chemical Exposure In Hospitals
Nurses may face health risks because of their unwitting exposure to typical hospital chemicals such as disinfectants, medication and radiation, an environmental group revealed Tuesday.
Hospitals may be clean and sterile but that is not to say that hospital employees are safe from health risks. A survey conducted by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) suggests there is a link between hospital nurses’ exposure to chemicals, pharmaceuticals and radiation and serious health problems such as cancer, asthma, miscarriages and children with birth defects, the public watchdog said in a press release Tuesday.
The group worked in collaboration with the American Nurses Association, Health Care Without Harm and the Environmental Health Education Center at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, and says this survey is the first of its kind.
Although extremely detailed, its authors note that the survey was not a controlled, statistically designed study.
Substances such as residues from medications, anesthetic gases, sterilizing and disinfecting chemicals, latex, cleaning chemicals, hand and skin disinfection products, and even mercury escaping from broken medical equipment are all potential culprits, the EWG says.
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