Safe Handling of Hazardous Drugs – Antineoplastic Drugs

In the year 1940, antineoplastic agents were introduced in the field of medical science. Since then these drugs are the best known toxic agents being used in the manufacturing of medicines. These particular toxins are non-specific in nature so they affect both cancerous as well as non-cancerous cells. Workers and professionals engaged in handling antineoplastic drugs are more prone to its harmful exposures. From the urine test of staff and workers engaged in various drug related activities, it has been proved that there is a high quantity of harmful chemicals in their body. These exposures to hazardous drugs can cause several health defects that include both short-term and long-term effects and are very disastrous.

Antineoplastic agents comes under the list of hazardous drugs and causes many health defects like pulmonary toxicity, renal toxicity, hepatic toxicity, hematopoetic toxicity, cardiotoxicity, dermal toxicity, ototoxicity, immunotoxicity and severe injuries to tissues having rapid turnover rate. Mostly all the antineoplastic drugs including alkalizing agents are used for the treatment of cancer. These hazardous drugs can be a boon when save lives of cancer patients but on the other hand it can be very disastrous when exposed. These particular chemicals have found to be rodent carcinogens.

It has been found out that the patients treated with these toxic agents suffer from many other diseases after completion of their treatment. These health defects include various reproductive and respiratory disorders. Healthcare workers and other professionals engaged in various drug related activities are also found to be the victims of these hazardous effects of antineoplastic drugs. Hence safe handling of these drugs is mandatory to combat the effects of exposures. These exposures can be a threat to mankind and turn this world into unhealthy world. Hence all the professionals must be very focused on using safety equipments and other safety measures.