Hazardous substances protection techniques

Operative personnel must understand that the containment and barrier techniques used in the operation of the BSC are significant not only as protection against sudden, overt contamination, but more importantly, as barriers to traces of residual contamination to which constant exposure may present long term health risks. Current pharmacy practices and contamination control manipulative techniques have been shown to be inadequate to contain hazardous substances in all phases of compounding and administration, and a pharmacy-wide study and standardized, remedial training programs must by quickly developed and carried out to protect operative personnel. ... 

Chemical analysis of hazardous substances in air, water, soil, sediment, or solid waste can best be performed by instrumental techniques involving gas chromatography (GC), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), GC/mass spectrometry (MS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AA) (for the metals). GC techniques using a flame ionization detector (FID) or electron-capture detector (BCD) are widely used. Other detectors can be used for specific analyses. However, for unknown substances, identification by GC is extremely difficult. The number of pollutants listed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are only in the hundreds — in comparison with the thousands of harmful... 

Other publications deal with the effects and fate of pollutants and experimental techniques for such studies (see for example [44]). In addition, the effects of pollutants on marine organisms are periodically reviewed (for the last review in the series by Reish et al. see [45]). Similar periodic reviews are published for mixing and transport processes [46]. Toxicity data for marine fauna are also available from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency database AQUIRE. Generally speaking, the sensitivity of marine fauna to chemicals varies widely, particularly among the crustaceans [47]. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has a database of toxicity and environmental effect data on Hazardous Substances Carried by Ships [48]. 

During the preparation of medicines, steam, vapour, aerosols, dust and fumes can be released, which may pose a health risk for the operator. It is not always possible to change the process releasing these hazardous substances. As a consequence it can be necessary to protect operators in preparation or quality control areas from exposure to the product or the active substance. This can be done by active ventilation and exhaust and by filtration in order to protect the environment (see also Sect. 26.4.1). The appropriate equipment may be fume cupboards, moveable exhaust ducts, powder exhaust units, (bio)safety cabinets and isolators. Fumes, gas mixtures and volatiles might be absorbed by special filters, but in pharmacy practice only the technique of exhausting and screen filtration is usually used. 

The goals of radiation protection techniques are two-fold to minimize exposure to both internal and external sources of radiation. The first goal is based on the fact that radiation-emitting substances that are ingested or otherwise enter the body can be extremely hazard-... 

Conditions under which work is carried out on construction sites is largely dictated by the weather, ranging from soaking wet to hot, dry and dusty and suitable protection for the health of the operators has to be provided. However, there is also a considerable range of substances and working techniques now in use that have created their own hazards and a number of these are considered below. 

Risk assessments will identify circumstances where health surveillance will be appropriate. Legal requirements for such surveillance extend beyond exposure to substances hazardous to health. Generally, there will be a need if there is an identifiable disease or health condition related to the work, there is a valid technique for its identification, there is a likelihood that the disease or condition may occur as a result of the work, and the surveillance will protect further the health of employees. Examples where these conditions may apply are vibration white finger and forms of work-related upper limb disorders (WRULDs). 

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