Report: Worker health paramount when choosing disinfection products
Hospital Safety Insider, June 23, 2016
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Hospital Safety Insider!
Healthcare employers should consider the safety and health of workers when choosing which environmental disinfection products to use for reducing healthcare-associated infections (HAI) among patients, according to researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
In "Notes from the Field" published in the April 22 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, NIOSH researchers reported the results of a health hazard evaluation at a Pennsylvania hospital where an employee reported concerns about health symptoms that seemed to be related to use of a new disinfection product.
The product, which had been introduced to help control HAIs, consists of hydrogen peroxide, acetic acid, and peroxyacetic acid. The report does not name the product, but describes it as a non-bleach sporicide advertised as a one-step cleaner, disinfectant, and deodorizer. According to the manufacturer's SDS, the product requires no PPE when it is diluted with water by an automated dispenser before use.
NIOSH researchers found that environmental services employees' exposures to the hydrogen peroxide and acetic acid in the product were within recommended exposure limits, and the third ingredient, peroxyacetic acid, was not subject to a limit. However, they speculated, it is possible that the mixture of hydrogen peroxide and peroxyacetic acid contributed to symptoms reported by workers, and existing exposure limits may not be protective against asthma-like symptoms.
This is an excerpt from the monthly healthcare safety resource Briefings on Hospital Safety. Subscribers can read the rest of the article here. Non-subscribers can find out more about the journal, its benefits, and how to subscribe by clicking here.
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Hospital Safety Insider!
Related Products
-
Hospital Safety Center
Improve compliance with hospital safety standards from The Joint Commission, OSHA, and other regulators with this...
-
Healthcare Life Safety Compliance
Created exclusively for healthcare facility managers, plant operations professionals, and directors of engineering, this...
-
Hospital Safety Insider
Stay on top of hospital safety requirements and best practices with our free, fast-paced weekly update.
-
Basic OSHA Compliance Manual Kit
Total compliance has never been easier. This one convenient package contains everything you need to ensure your outpatient...
-
Basic Dental OSHA Compliance Manual Kit
Total compliance has never been easier. This one convenient package contains everything you need to ensure your dental...
Most Popular
- Articles
-
- Math can be tricky: TJC corrects ABHR storage requirement
- Air control equals infection control
- Don't forget the three checks in medication administration
- Residency coordinators’ responsibilities
- Note similarities and differences between HCPCS, CPT® codes
- Study: Shorter shifts reduces residents’ attentional failures
- The consequences of an incomplete medical record
- RPA Subscriber Exclusive: February issue of Residency Program Alert now available
- Practice the six rights of medication administration
- OSHA HazCom updates include labeling, SDS requirements
- E-mailed
-
- Air control equals infection control
- OSHA HazCom updates include labeling, SDS requirements
- Tip: Note new thyroid imaging codes
- Tim Porter-O'Grady sounds off
- Skills of effective case managers
- Q: Can you clarify the reporting of dates on the plan of care for diagnosis onset and exacerbation?
- Q&A: Defining Subacute
- Q&A: Are colleges sending students to our facility for rotations business associates?
- Note similarities and differences between HCPCS, CPT® codes
- Fracture coding in ICD-10-CM requires greater specificity
- Searched