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The Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) offers an exposure assessment service based on recently completed research work, funded by the Health and Safety Executive, which looked at containment systems in hospital oncology wards and pharmacy cytotoxic preparation units. Skin absorption has been highlighted in published studies as a possible route of exposure so surface contamination and biological monitoring measurements can be useful in assessing potential exposure.
Services Offered • • Platinum in urine and surface wipes (this reflects exposure
to carboplatin/cisplatin). • Methotrexate in urine and surface wipes. These measurements were developed as "marker" drugs which may reflect general levels of exposure to cytotoxic drugs and not because they are necessarily the most toxic. They were chosen because: • They are generally widely used in large amounts in clinical oncology.• Their pharmacokinetics/toxicokinetics regarding urine excretion is well documented and allows interpretation of urine results in terms of any absorbed dose. HSL routinely carry out these analyses in batches four times per year in February, May, August and November. However, in the case of incidents where immediate investigations may be needed outside these timescales we are able to offer the service with turnaround times tailored to your requirements. Applications Further Details
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Cytotoxic
drugs used in chemotherapy are administered to patients on hospital
wards or as part of outpatient or domicillary care. People potentially
exposed to such drugs include: pharmacy staff employed in formulating
or reconstituting the drugs; nursing and domestic staff working
on oncology wards; and community oncology nurses administering the
drugs in patients' homes. The toxic nature of cytotoxic drugs is
well recognised and control measures to contain them should be in
place in all hospital trusts. Exposure assessment is, therefore,
concerned with measuring the efficacy of the control measures.
Cyclophosphamide/ifosfamide
in urine and surface wipes. 
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