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Occupational exposure to cyclophosphamide in nurses at a single center
Raveena Ramphal1, Tejinder Bains, Régis Vaillancourt
1From the Department of Pediatrics (Drs Ramphal and Osmond), University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; and Pharmacy Department (Ms Bains and Dr Vaillancourt) and Clinical Research Unit (Dr Osmond and Dr Barrowman), Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Objective:
To evaluate biological and environmental exposure to cyclophosphamide in nurses at a single institution.
Methods:
Biological exposure to cyclophosphamide in nurses administering cyclophosphamide compared with two control groups: nononcology nurses not administering cyclophosphamide and community members without recent hospital exposure. Environmental exposure to chemotherapy was measured using surface wipes taken from oncology and nononcology areas in the hospital.
Results:
More than one third of all nurses and no community controls tested positive for urinary cyclophosphamide. Oncology and nurse controls tested positive in equal numbers. Surface wipes were positive only in the oncology ward.
Conclusion:
We have demonstrated elevated levels of cyclophosphamide in one third of all nurses and cyclophosphamide contamination of surfaces within the oncology patient environment. This suggests that environmental contamination plays a major role in biological exposure to cyclophosphamide.
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