2017 Volume 43 Issue 12 Pages 663-670
We verified the effect of a simplified washing procedure on the decontamination of antineoplastic drugs on vial surfaces.
The vials of Vitamedin® were intentionally contaminated with 20 μL of 5-FU (1000 μg/20 μL)，cisplatin (10 μg/20 μL) or paclitaxel (120 μg/20 μL). The vials were soaked in tap water, sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) or ozone water and washed with running tap water or ozone water.
The decontamination rates were 5-FU (95.9-97.0％) > cisplatin (92.7-96.9％) > paclitaxel (68.9-71.3％) in all conditions. Washed by running tap water, it was found viscous 5-FU and cisplatin, which are water-soluble, were decontaminated largely with no significant difference. The decontamination rate of paclitaxel was lower than 5-FU or cisplatin. There were no differences in decontamination effects among the washing conditions. This may be due to the conditions that the amount of intentionally contaminated drugs was large and that the antineoplastic drugs penetrated the paper label. It was revealed the effect of the simplified washing procedure using tap water on decontamination was greater in 5-FU or cisplatin than paclitaxel. From the viewpoint of the amount of anticancer drug decontamination, it is suggested that low level contamination as detected from the vial surface of an anticancer drug can be removed by a simple washing method. Whereas, if the contamination removal rate by the simple washing method is constant, it is impossible to decontaminate by washing only once, and it should be necessary to perform multiple times and/or combined with physical removal to decontaminate completely.
