Funding Agency: British Columbia Environmental and Occupational Research Network
Collaborators: UBC School of Environmental Health
Grant Recieved: 2007
Objective: To develop preliminary analytical methods to study the properties of nornitrogen mustard gas produced from the interaction of cyclophosphamide and sodium hypochlorite.
Antineoplastic drugs are used for the treatment of cancer. Occupational exposure to these drugs has been Handling and preparation of cytotoxic drugs by healthcare workers puts them at risk to respiratory and dermal exposures. As well, the extent to which cytotoxic drugs are used in healthcare results in surfaces such as workbenches, floors and door handles becoming contaminated with residual amounts of these drugs. Initial laboratory tests show that oxidizing cyclophosphamide with sodium hypochlorite (bleach) produces a toxic analog of mustard gas, nornitrogen mustard. Exposure to mustard gas causes DNA damage, respiratory irritation, and increased risk of lung and respiratory cancer. This project seeks to develop an analytical method to study the interaction between carcinogenic substances and cleaning agents. Further enhancement of this method will be needed to quantitatively measure low exposure in environmental matrices. The intended outcome from this study is an analytical method to measure healthcare workers potential exposures to toxic cleaning by-products.
Dr. George Astrakianakis is supervising the graduate student who is conducting this research.
