In other words, implement green products in your hospital, and reduce the risk of Asthma!
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Nursing professionals exposed to general hospital cleaning products and medical instrument disinfectants at work are at increased risk of developing asthma, results of a new study indicate.
“I think it’s time that hospitals start exploring substituting products containing chemicals known to be respiratory irritants/sensitizers with products that may pose less health risk, just like what they did with substituting powdered latex gloves with powder free/vinyl gloves,” Dr. Ahmed A. Arif of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte told Reuters Health.
“It is important to recognize,” Arif added, “that ours is not the only study, although it is one of the larger studies, that has shown association between exposure to cleaning-related chemicals and asthma in nurses.”
Arif and colleagues surveyed a representative sample of 3650 health care professionals working in Texas, including 941 nurses.
After adjusting for a number of factors that might influence the results, such as age, smoking, body weight, and seniority, nurses who reported regularly cleaning medical instruments were 67 percent more likely to report a diagnosis of asthma since starting their job, the investigators report in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Nurses who were regularly exposed to general cleaning chemicals and disinfectants were 72 percent more likely to say they had been newly-diagnosed with asthma and 57 percent more likely to report asthma-like symptoms.
Somewhat surprisingly, according to the researchers, nurses working with solvents and glues used in patient care activities were also 51 percent more likely to say they had symptoms akin to asthma. This finding was “less expected,” Arif admitted, “and we need more studies to further evaluate the significance of this finding.”
SOURCE: Occupational and Environmental Medicine, February 2009.
