Exposure of pharmacy personnel to mutagenic antineoplastic drugs.

Abstract

The Salmonella reversion test was used to measure the mutagenic activities of urine concentrates from individuals preparing cancer chemotherapy agents for i.v. administration. Longitudinal studies were performed in which the total urine produced in 24-hr periods was collected, starting on a Sunday at 7 p.m. after a duty-free weekend and extending over an 8-day period. There was no detectable increase in mutagenic activity in the urine concentrates of three pharmacy administrators who had no contact with these drugs. All six individuals admixing drugs in open-faced, horizontal laminar flow hoods displayed a 2-fold increase in mutagenesis by the fourth day with peak values of 2.7- to 24-fold occurring on Days 5 and 6, reduced values by Day 7, and a return to the spontaneous level by Day 8. When four of the six positive individuals in the preceding experiment admixed comparable amounts of chemotherapeutic drugs in a closed-face, vertical laminar flow hood, no increase in mutagenic activity was detected in their urine concentrates over the 8-day period.