Nurses Exposed to Toxic Cleaning Chemicals in Hospitals; Cancer Risk Elevated

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(NaturalNews) Nurses are exposed to a wide variety of toxic chemicals and radiation in the course of their jobs, and the degree of this exposure correlates with their risk of cancer, asthma, miscarriages and birth defects, according to a nationwide survey conducted by the American Nurses Association, the Environmental Working Group (EWG), Health Care Without Harm and the Environmental Health Education Center at the University of Maryland School of Nursing.

"Nurses are exposed daily to scores of different toxic chemicals and other hazardous materials whose cumulative health risks have never been studied," said Jane Houlihan, the EWG's vice president for research. "Nurses ingest, touch or breathe residues of any number of these potentially harmful substances as they care for patients, day after day."

In the first ever national survey examining the health effects of nurses' exposure to chemicals, the groups surveyed 1,500 nurses from 50 states about their exposure to 11 common health care chemicals, including anesthetic gases, hand disinfectants, cleaning substances, latex, pharmaceutical products including chemotherapy and antiretroviral drugs, mercury, personal care products such as shampoo and soap, and sterilization chemicals.

In addition to these known or potential toxins, nurses are also habitually exposed to radiation. In spite of a recommendation from the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention in 2002, no comprehensive study of toxic workplace exposure in nurses has ever been conducted, let alone investigations into the health effects of cumulative exposure to this wide variety of toxins.

Even a seemingly innocuous substance like a household cleaner can be dangerous over long-term exposure.

"Generally, we think the cleaner the better -- the cleaner something is, the safer it is," said Lisa Hartmayer, a nurse from the University of California at San Francisco. "But that's not always the case. We use everyday cleaners that have chemicals, there's soap we use on our hands. I don't believe there's strong enough research to tell us what happens with constant exposure."

According to Hartmayer, many nurses complain of headaches, runny noses and watery eyes each time they use sanitary wipes to clean off medical equipment, which they must do several times each day.

Upon analyzing the results of the survey, researchers found that nurses who were exposed to toxic substances at least once per week had higher rates of asthma, cancer and miscarriage than nurses who were exposed less frequently.

"I know a woman who had eight miscarriages while she was working in health care," said Lauri Hoagland, a nurse practitioner from Napa, CA. "There haven't been any studies, but if you work in health care, you know something's happening. There isn't enough information and there aren't enough rules for hospitals to follow."

The children of pregnant nurses who were exposed to chemicals were more likely to have birth defects than the children of nurses who had not been exposed while pregnant. This correlation held particularly strongly for muscoloskeletal defects. Pregnant nurses who were exposed to anesthetics or sterilizing agents were seven to nine times more likely to give birth to children with such defects than nurses who had not been exposed.

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