Survey of the Prevention Practices and the Awareness of Pharmacists in Handling of Mixing of Anticancer Drug Injections in Japanese Regional Core Hospitals

In this study, we investigated the perceptions of occupational exposure among pharmacists who prepare anticancer drugs for injection and the exposure control measures taken by individuals and their facilities. Thirty-one hospitals were selected as the target facilities, and 523 pharmacists who were working at the target facilities at the time of questionnaire collection were surveyed. The purpose of this study was to identify the problems that need to be improved not only in each facility, but also in each pharmacist by investigating how to utilize the manuals and guidelines for the preparation of injectable anticancer agents and how each individual pharmacist is implementing the details of their own techniques and procedures. Although all the facilities had prepared their own procedures using common manuals and guidelines, there were some items that were not followed in the procedures. More than half of the pharmacists engaged in the preparation of anticancer drugs performed their work with a sense of anxiety about health hazards and had experience of exposure. In this study, we conducted a survey of the actual conditions of the environment for the preparation of anticancer drugs in medical facilities, as well as a survey of the perceptions of individual pharmacists engaged in the work and their preparation techniques and procedures, to clarify the current problems and future issues. Although it is necessary to use reference materials in accordance with each facility, individual preparation techniques and procedures need to be stan-dardized and mastered to reduce occupational exposure.