Health Care Worker Hazards

Physical hazards are concerned with items such as back injury, electrocution, rapid pressure change, and violence. Environmental hazards include items such as ionizing radiation, nonionizing radiation, building-related illness, and noise. 

Chemical hazards are concerned with items such as follows [8]  

Main types of hazards of the health care profession. 

Finally, psychosocial/psychological hazards (i.e., emotion-related stresses) are considered one of the most pressing health hazards, with constant demands from the institution, patients, housekeepers, and coworkers such as nurses or doctors. Additional information on health care worker hazards is available in Refs. [8,9]. 

5 Health Care Worker Musculoskeletal and Needlestick Injuries and Latex Allergy 

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Discuss the types of health care worker hazards. 

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducts research on criteria for specific functions and occupations. NIOSH publishes numerous safety and health standards related to workplace hazards. There is an entire section of standards devoted to the safety of health care workers. Of particular interest are standards regarding blood-borne... 

Disaster events may create a sudden influx of patients who have been exposed to a chemical, radiation, or other hazard that requires decontamination. Protecting nurses and other health care workers who respond to chemical or hazardous materials (HAZMAT) mass casualty incidents is critical. Patient decontamination is an organized method of removing residual contaminants from the victim s skin and clothing and should be performed whenever known or suspected contamination has occurred with a hazardous substance through contact with either aerosols, solids, or liquids. The degree of decontamination performed will... 

To protect patients and health care workers, it is essential to determine the responsible hazardous chemical as early in the decontamination process as possible. Based on previous experience with hazardous exposures, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommend level B protection as a minimal precaution (see Table 3.1) before the offending substance is identified (11). However, if available evidence suggests that the substance involves the skin as a route of exposure or is dangerous by dermal absorption or corrosion, health care workers and others coming in contact with victims require the additional skin protection of Level A PPE (9). 

According to the American Hospital Infection Control Community, decontamination is a process that ensures an item is safe to handle by a health care worker without the need for protective clothing or equipment.The Occupational Safety and Health Guidance Manual for Hazardous Waste Site Activities defines decontamination as a process of removing or neutralizing contaminants that have accumulated on persoimel and equipment. ... 

Health care workers are an important element of the health care system. They play a crucial role in the success or failure of health care systems around the globe. These professionals place themselves at risk daily of contracting various types of life-threatening infections from blood-borne pathogens including hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV. Furthermore, various types of injuries from needles and other sharp medical devices, along with accidental exposure to blood and body fluids from sprays and splashes are some of the most serious hazards faced by health care workers throughout the world. 

Each day health care workers are exposed to many types of hazards. The main ones are shown in Figure 7.2 [8]. These are infectious hazards, physical hazards, environmental hazards, chemical hazards, and psychosocial/psy-chological hazards (i.e., emotional stress). Infectious hazards are basically concerned with various types of infections. Health care workers are exposed routinely to many types of infectious hazards, particularly blood-borne pathogens. Over the past few decades, blood-borne pathogens have received increasing attention because of the focus on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which can resulf in acquired immune deficiency S5mdrome (AIDS) [8]. 

Clever, L. H., Omenn, G. S., Hazards for Health Care Workers, Annual Review of Public Health, Vol. 9,1988, pp. 273-303. 

Workplace Solutions Medical Snrveillance for Health Care Workers Exposed to Hazardous Drugs... 

Sharps injuries are a significant injury and health hazard for health care workers and a costly problem for hospitals. Most reported sharps injuries involve nursing staff, but laboratory staff, physicians, housekeepers, and other health care workers are also affected. 

Human health biomonitoring using biomarkers and chemical analyses are used in the following applications (1) Health surveillance of persons who are known to have high occupational or environmental exposures to potentially toxic chemicals. This may include those who work with chemicals, radioactive materials, or biohazards as part of their occupation. Examples include factory workers, chemical industry employees, farmers, health care professionals, nuclear plant employees, and veterans of the Gulf War I. This may also consist of those who are involuntarily exposed to such hazards in their everyday surroundings. Some examples are people living near land fills, factories, hazardous waste sites, or environmental catastrophes such as the Chernobyl... 

There are circumstances that make it acceptable to not wear PPE under conditions when it would normally be used. OSHA, in 1910.1030 (dXll) states. .. unless the employer shows that the employee temporarily and briefly declined to use PPE when, under rare and extraordinary circumstances, it was the employee s judgement that in the specific instance its use would have prevented the delivery of health care or public safety services or would have posed an increased hazard to the safety of the worker or co-worker. When the employee makes this judgement, the circumstances shall be investigated and documented in order to determine hether changes can be instituted to prevent such occurrences in the future. ... 

Despite the lower risk of occupational skin disease, the sheer vast size of the electronics workforce will contribute to large numbers of workers with occupational dermatoses. Health care personnel responsible for the health of these workers should be aware of the cutaneous hazards present and be alert to the risk of... 

This section discusses the hazard that may be created by substances used to produce medicines, with emphasis on workers in health care. These workers are mainly pharmacists, operators, nurses and doctors. 

So the term hazardous substances may have different notions. In this chapter the CLP definition is followed meaning that all substances are considered potentially hazardous. Carcinogenic, reprotoxic and mutagenic substances are either noted as such or as a group as CMR. Occupational safety and health care investigates all processes and all substances, to prevent health damage of workers. 

The medical and occupational work history plays an Important role In the Initial evaluation of workers exposed to MC. It Is therefore extremely Important for the examining physlolan or other lloensed health care professional to evaluate the MC-exposed worker carefully and completely and to foous the examination on MC s potentially asso-olated health hazards. The medloal evaluation must In-olude an annual detailed work and medical history with speolal emphasis on oardlao history and neurological symptoms. 

Emphasis on engineering controls is based upon ways to better protect workers from contaminated needles or other larp ol ects. Many safely medical devices are already available and effective in controlling these hazards and wider use of such devices would reduce thousands of injuries each year. OSHA issued a final regulation (29 CFR 1910.1030), on oeeupational exposure to bloodbome pathogens in 1991, to protect nearly six million workers in health care and related occupations at risk of exposure to bloodbome diseases. Occupational exposure to blood and other potentially infectious materials, which may contain bloodbome pathogens, or microorganisms, that can cause bloodbome diseases and is of concern to those who have exposures. 

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