Risk of spontaneous abortion among nurses handling antineoplastic drugs.

Abstract

of spontaneous abortion among nurses hand ling antineo plastic drugs. Scand J Work Environ Health 1990;16:102-7 . The purpo se of the study was to evaluate the frequency of spontaneous abortion in two groups of women. One group consisted of women regularly involved in the preparation of cancer chemothe rapy perfusions and therefore considered to be exposed to cytostatic agents; the other consisted of women not occupationally exposed to such agents. The study was carried out in four French hospitals. Four hundred and sixty-six women were involved; 534 pregnancies were described in which 139 were exposed and 357 were unexposed . The results showed that the frequency of spontaneous abortion was 26 % for the exposed pregnancies and 15 070 in the unexposed ones (odds ratio 2.0). These results do not seem to be due either to the classic risk factors of spontaneous abortion (age, cigarette consumption duri ng pregnancy, pregnancy order) (adjusted odd s ratio I.7) or to possible errors concerning the retrospective evaluation of prior gynecologic and obstetric history.

Ectopic pregnancy and occupational exposure of hospital personnel

“…various types of exposure: antineoplastic drugs (20), solvents (21), anesthetic gases (22,23), and ethylene oxide (24). This phenomenon tends to suggest that the level of exposure that we studied is prone to have detectable adverse effects.…”

Occupational exposures among nurses and risk of spontaneous abortion

“…[16][17][18] Previous studies have had mixed results, and many suffer from limited sample sizes. The three largest studies [19][20][21] showed increased risks for spontaneous abortion with self-reported first trimester exposure through handling or mixing, mostly among oncology nurses or pharmacists (ORs ranging from 1.5-2.3) in samples that included from 18 to 223 exposed cases. Other studies did not find statistically significant associations [22][23][24][25][26][27] with ORs ranging from 0.7-2.8, and limited sample sizes (3 to 34 exposed cases).…”

Chemotherapy: some potential risks under antineoplastic drugs handling

“…В исследованиях, проведенных до 1990 г., отсутствуют описания мер пре-досторожности при работе c противоопухолевыми пре-паратами, и можно полагать, что они были менее стро-гими, чем в последующие годы. Несмотря на то, что исследования были проведены в разных странах с использованием различных эпидемиологических ме-тодов, в большинстве из них отмечался статистически значимый повышенный риск спонтанных абортов и врожденных пороков развития (ВПР) у потомства медицинского персонала с экспозицией к цитостатикам (р <0,05) [42][43][44][45][46][47].…”