1. Formalin safety in pathology laboratory and innovative monitoring for airborne formaldehyde exposure
- Author
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Stefano Dugheri, Daniela Massi, Nicola Mucci, Giovanni Cappelli, Lucia Trevisani, Giulio Arcangeli, Stefano Dugheri, Daniela Massi, Nicola Mucci, Giovanni Cappelli, Lucia Trevisani, and Giulio Arcangeli
- Abstract
This review is directed at preventive health professionals, anatomic pathologists and technicians to focus their attention on the rapidly growing field of safe formalin practices. An updated overview of the most recent improvements in preventive measures versus formaldehyde (FA) in the anatomic pathology laboratories (APL) is provided. The occupational hygienist role and the required knowledge for a modern and clear occupational exposure assessment are described. Real-time, in-continuous, commercial analyzers for repeated FA exposure assessment are considered to evaluate technical changes in air monitoring programs, introduced to mitigate FA emissions, in compliance with the adopted limit values. To better choose the adequate instrumentation, the main features of each FA monitoring instrument recently introduced on the market are listed. Moreover, the main features of the modern workflow setting in APL are summarized. A computer-based scientific and non-scientific reports search by key-words was performed on PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar and Google Patents databases, querying the following topics: i) grossing workstation for ergonomic layout, ii) commercially available direct reading tools to measure formalin, iii) real-time, in-continuous FA monitoring instruments for sale. This review represents a useful tool to summarize the technical requirements and expert know-how necessary to minimize FA emissions and produce an exhaustive FA assessment in the APL., Ovaj pregled usmjeren je na preventivne zdravstvene radnike, anatomske patologe i tehničare kako bi svoju pozornost usredotočili na brzo rastuće područje sigurnih formalinskih praksi. Ažurirani pregled nudi najnovija poboljšanja preventivnih mjera u odnosu na formaldehid (FA) u laboratorijima za anatomsku patologiju (APL). Opisana je uloga higijeničara na radu i potrebna znanja za modernu i jasnu procjenu izloženosti na radu. Komercijalni analizatori u stvarnom vremenu za kontinuiranu procjenu izloženosti FA razmatraju se za procjenu tehničkih promjena u programima praćenja zraka, uvedenim radi ublažavanja emisija FA, u skladu s prihvaćenim graničnim vrijednostima. Kako bi se bolje odabrala odgovarajuća instrumentacija, navedene su glavne značajke svakog instrumenta za praćenje FA koji je nedavno predstavljen na tržištu. Štoviše, sažete su glavne značajke suvremenih postavki tijeka rada u APL-u. Računalno zasnovano pretraživanje znanstvenih i neznanstvenih izvješća po ključnim riječima provedeno je u bazama podataka PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar i Google Patents, s težištem na sljedeće teme: i) prikupljanje radnih stanica za ergonomski raspored, ii) komercijalno dostupni alati za izravno očitanje mjerenja formalina, iii) instrumenti za kontinuirano praćenje FA u stvarnom vremenu u prodaji. Ovaj pregled predstavlja koristan alat za sažimanje tehničkih zahtjeva i stručnog znanja potrebnog za minimiziranje emisija FA i izradu iscrpne procjene FA u APL-u.
- Published
- 2021