Specifications

7
Studies have shown that intermittent flow apparatus produce far less pollution than continuous
flow methods used by anaesthetic machines (Heath et al., 1994). One of the main problems in
labour and delivery is that the mother controls the administration of nitrous oxide and removes
the mask between contractions. Since the nitrous oxide is off gassed for 17 to 35 minutes after
stopping it means the mother is off-gassing directly into the room between contractions. Heath et
al., 1994, suggested that the gas only be used in the late first stage and second stage of labour to
decrease the amount of nitrous oxide being used and offgassed which would in turn decrease the
workers’ exposure. This is not a viable option since nitrous oxide is often the first method of
pain control offered to mothers in labour.
3.0 WORKPLACE DESCRIPTION
3.1 Dirty Core Area
The Dirty Core Area is located on the second floor of Langley Memorial Hospital in the area
outside the operating rooms (OR). Biopsy samples from the OR are brought to the Dirty Core
Area to preserve them in formalin prior to being sent for tissue analysis. A diagram of the room
where the formalin is dispensed can be found in of this report Appendix 1 of this report.
Photographs can be found in Appendix 2.
The room where the formalin is dispensed is approximately 14 m
2
. It has two sinks, for gross
cleaning of instruments, before they are sent down a dumb waiter to Central Supply (for
sterilization), shelves with various containers and gloves and the biopsy sample fridge. The
formalin is located on a shelf attached to a fixed station. It is stored in an 18.9 L plastic
container fitted with a spigot. The container sits in the cardboard shipping box.
There is no one nurse assigned to dispense formalin in the dirty core area. The nurse working in
the OR is responsible for bringing the biopsy from the OR to the dispensing station and covering
the sample with formalin to a level approximately ten times the size of the tissue. The time
spent in the formalin dispensing area was approximately 2 minutes per sample. The time
required to cover the sample depended on the size of the biopsy, however, on average formalin