Hazardous materials protections in ED practice: laws and logistics

A great many laws, at federal, state, and local levels, deal with hazardous materials and protective measures against them. They are not yet specific to emergency departments but many surely include the emergency workplace. For a variety of reasons (cost, concentration on AIDS, too few nurses), too many departments may not be fulfilling their legal duties to protect their personnel. Every emergency department, regardless of size, should have immediately at hand appropriate sets of toxin-protective personal equipment in sizes to suit its staff and in numbers suitable to the population it serves. The unexpected is to be expected in emergency practice. To be sure, no garments, respiratory devices, or means of disposal exist that will be fully effective against everything, but that does not excuse the legal duty to take reasonable measures, such as providing appropriate training, equipment reasonably calculated to offer protection, clear and accessible procedures, and clear avenues to further resources, including posted phone numbers for the regional poison control center and for CHEM-TREC, the 24-hour response center of the chemical industry, which can provide indispensable assistance and information (800-424-9300).