WHY CONDUCT HD SURFACE SAMPLING USING CHEMOALERT?
The United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) is an organization that sets standards for the quality of medicines, which are legally binding and enforceable by law. USP publishes these standards in a book called the United States Pharmacopeia and The National Formulary (USP–NF).
General Chapter <800> in USP-NF, commonly known as USP 800, sets standards for the handling of hazardous drugs (HDs) in healthcare workplaces, which are intended to improve patient and worker safety, and environmental health.
USP 800 prescribes how healthcare organizations must manage the risks associated with HD surface contamination, and recommends surface sampling as a way of measuring the effectiveness of their actions. The standards go on to say that, if any quantifiable HD surface contamination is identified, actions are taken to control the exposure risks and that the results are checked by re-sampling.