LAUSR

Introduction Hazardous drugs are an important risk to health care workers. Some of these products may even be potentially carcinogenic. In different Spanish hospitals it was observed that only Cytostatics drugs were prepared in biological safety cabins, leaving workers exposed to the rest of hazardous non cytostatic drugs. Methods A bibliographical review of scientific articles and researches has been carried out, together with the laws on occupational health and recommendations of the Spanish organisms. In the USA, research promoted the development of policies of prevention and the incorporation of these drugs in the list NIOSH. Result After analysing the information obtained, we detected the following problems: HD’s are prepared in hospitalisation rooms, where the right conditions to protect workers are non-existent; In many cases, health care workers are given only personal protective equipment to avoid exposure; Specific health control isn’t performed in most cases; National legislation obliges the risk to be taken into account for the worker. Although there are no long-term epidemiological studies, protective measures should be taken. Discussion In many hospitals in our country HD’s are not prepared in biological safety cabins. Health workers are unaware that they are exposed to these risks and no specific health training or monitoring is performed. Collaborative epidemiological researches should be promoted among Public Health Units, which have information on the prevalence rate of cancer diseases, and those responsible for occupational health prevention.