The thrust of this week’s article is not so much focused on the patient or the recipient of treatment but on the care giver or the person providing the treatment to the cancer patients. The occupational hazard of handling cancer drugs is highlighted to create awareness and hence address proactively the issue of exposure of health care professional to these chemicals.
Cancer drugs also known as chemotherapy or cytotoxic drugs are as the name suggests; toxic. Toxic not only to the patients to whom the drugs are administered but also to the health care provider who is preparing and administering the treatment. Hence certain mandatory protocols must be enforced in any institution where chemotherapy is administered or else there are serious consequences .
Dealing with the sick and vulnerable groups require a strong character, diligence and a positive attitude from persons providing care; the active participant in this instance is the nurse. Though the medical team comprising of the doctor, nurse, pharmacist, laboratory and  xray techncians is expected to have these attributes, it is the nurse who go the extra mile and put himself or herself at risk daily to the serious adverse effects of cytotoxic drugs.
In the more developed countries where health care workers are specialised in this area of treatment, comprehensive training is provided on various aspects of handling cytotoxic drugs. The pharmacist is usually evaluated on competencies of preparing the drugs. The nurse is expected to be fully knowlegeable on how to prepare and administer the treatment to the patients using the necessary safety equipment and gears such as the biologic safety cabinets, gloves, gowns and respirators.
In the event of a spillage or leak from a damaged package, the health care professional or even the courier service must try to contain the spill and hence prevent contamination of surrounding instruments by taking extra precautionary measures. In cleaning up and properly discarding the damaged cytotoxic drugs it is anticiapted that the person should be double gloved and wearing a respirator which must be discarded immediately after. 
However, if the safety measures are not enforced then the health care worker can be exposed to these toxic drugs via varying routes such as the skin,eye, nasal passage (from accidental inhalation of the aerosol form) or simply ingesting a contaminated food item. He or she can be a victim of occupational hazard. 
The reasons for implementing  mandatory protocols resulted from the concerns for health workers who were exposed to cytotoxic drugs. Some international studies done detected levels of cancer drugs in the air where there were no biological safety cabinets which resulted in detable levels of the drugs found in the urine samples of the nurse administering the drug.
The effects of this mal practise vary in severity from mild allergic reactions upon contact with the skin,eyes and mucus membranes to damages to the cell. Other subjective symptoms including nausea, headache and dizziness. Associated adverse reproductive outcomes include spontaneous abortions and risk of developing malformed babies. Although there is no evidence to suggest that long term exposure results in cancer, it must be noted that there is an increased frequency chromosomal damages which occurs in the cells of the exposed person.
So, hats off to those persons who perform challenging duties of nursing care to chemo patients; sometimes providing hope to the hopeless while putting themselves at risk. The reward is that the disease goes into remission and you don’t have to go through this ordeal ever again. But sometimes it does not always go this way and you have to be prepared for the worse.
However the least which could be done is that all adminstrators of institutions which offer chemotherapy services provide the necessary training to their staff on safety protocols  and aslo provide the necessary safety gears. The preparation, handling and administration of cancer drugs no longer have to be a occupational hazard once the Occupational Safety and Health body is vigilant.
For further advice consult the pharmacist at Medicine Express PHARMACY located at 223 Camp Street, between Lamaha and New Market Streets. If you have any queries, comments or further information on the above topic kindly forward them to medicine.express@gmail.com or send them to 223 Camp Street, N/burg. Tel #225-5142.