Sue Crump braced as
the chemo drugs
dripped into her
body. She knew
treatment would be
rough. She had seen
its signature
countless times in
the
ravaged bodies and
hopeful faces of
cancer patients in
hospitals where she
had spent 23 years
mixing chemo as a
pharmacist.
At the same time,
though, she wondered
whether those same
drugs – experienced
as a form of
“secondhand chemo”
-- may have caused
her own cancer.
Chemo is poison by
design. It’s
descended from
deadly mustard gas
first used against
soldiers in World
War I. Now it’s
deployed to stop the
advance of cancer.
Crump knew she had
her own war on her
hands. She wanted to
live long enough to
see her 21-year-old
daughter, Chelsea,
graduate college.
And she wanted
something else: She
wanted young
pharmacists and
nurses to pay
attention to her
story.
Crump, who died of
pancreatic cancer in
September at age 55,
was one of thousands
of health care
workers who were
chronically exposed
to chemotherapy
agents on the job
for years before
there were even
voluntary safety
guidelines in place.
Now some of those
workers are being
diagnosed with
cancers that
occupational health
specialists say
could be linked to
exposure to the same
powerful drugs that
have saved hundreds
of thousands of
patient lives.
Experts believe
that’s because when
nurses, pharmacists,
technicians and
increasingly, even
veterinarians, mix
and deliver chemo,
accidental spills,
sprays and punctures
put them in close,
frequent contact
with hazardous
drugs.
Yet an
InvestigateWest
investigation has
found that the
federal Occupational
Safety and Health
Administration does
not regulate
exposure to these
toxins in the
workplace,
despite multiple
studies documenting
ongoing
contamination and
exposures.
Studies as far back
as the 1970s have
linked increased
rates of certain
cancers to nurses
and physicians.
Exposures continue
to occur. A
just-completed study
from the U.S.
Centers for Disease
Control, 10 years in
the making and the
largest to date,
confirms that chemo
continues to
contaminate the work
spaces where it’s
used, and in some
cases is still being
found in the urine
of those who handle
it, despite
knowledge of safety
precautions.
Read more:
Lifesaving Drugs,
Deadly Consequences
and
Cancer patient
'slowly poisoned
