Healthcare Worker Occupational Health Activities

It is counter-intuitive that the healthcare industry, whose mission is the care of the sick, is itself a ‘high-hazard' industry for the workers it employs. This industry sector consistently demonstrates poor injury and illness statistics, among the highest in the U.S. and employs about 10% of the total workforce both in the U.S. and worldwide.

While possessing every hazard class, the biologic and musculoskeletal hazards are those typically addressed in workplace safety programs. However, under-appreciated are the diverse and novel chemical hazards also present in the work environment, in the form of sterilants, germicidals, industrial cleaning agents and pharmaceuticals including the highly toxic anti-cancer drugs.

The healthcare industry sector has been a long-standing area of research focus and clinical practice for our program. Our team has been engaged in several projects which assess exposure and potential health harm in healthcare workers. We are also examining intervention strategies to reduce exposure to hazards in this sectoral setting.

Our Current Projects:

• Determination of Antineoplastic Drug Exposure in Healthcare Workers
• Human Breast-Milk Biomonitoring: Detection of Hazardous Drugs in Breast Milk of Oncology Nurses
• Improving Practices For Lifting Nursing Home Residents
• Sustaining Long-Term Caregivers in Safer Jobs

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