Exposure to exhaled nitrous oxide in hospitals post-anesthesia care units.

Due to the present evidence for reproductive toxicity of nitrous oxide (N(2)O) among female personnel in health care, exposure of 17 female workers employed in two post-anesthesia care units was evaluated. Geometric mean concentration of nitrous oxide for six recovery room personnel was 3.1 ppm versus 1.17 ppm for eleven employees in surgical nursing units. The longest time needed to reach zero concentration of nitrous oxide in postoperative nursing units was 9.5 h. The result of correlation analysis did neither show any association between duration of nitrous oxide exhaled from patients and patient-related factors. It is very unlikely that these low exposure levels can cause any adverse health effect among pregnant PACU employees. However, for those institutions that seek extra protective measures, reassignment of pregnant employees needs to be extended for several hours after a patient is admitted in the PACU units.