[Occupational hazards due to exposure to waste anesthetic gases].

Dear Editor,

The publication on “Occupational hazards due to exposure to waste anesthetic gases” is very interesting. Lucio LMC, Braz et al. noted that “The occupational hazards related to WAGs including genotoxicity, mutagenicity and oxidative stress, stand as a public health issue and must be acknowledged by exposed personnel and responsible authorities, especially in developing countries. Thus, it is urgent to stablish maximum safe limits of concentration of WAGs in ORs and educational practices and protocols for exposed professionals.” In fact, the occupational health of medical personnel is usually forgotten. Lack of concern and no risk monitoring is common.

In our experience from Thailand, it is approved that exposure to medical waste in hospital is a cause of carcinogenicity to medical personnel. The important issue is how to implement a preventive measure for medical personnel. For one who works in anesthesiology, risk reduction by protective tool is needed and there is a requirement for regular monitoring for the health problem. Nevertheless, the monitoring might be complex since one has exposure to both environmental and occupational hazards. Minimizing of exposure is needed and it is an actual challenge in the situation of high workload for anesthesiologist at present.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.