GERPAC study phase 2: Surface contamination in control laboratories

Last year, at 18^th GERPAC conference, the results of assessment for surface contamination on locations outside the collective protection (isolator or BSC) of 79 hospital pharmacies from France (67), Belgium (9) and Switzerland (5) was given. The conclusion was that no direct correlation with the equipment, environment, process can be evidenced due to the overall very few positive samples and quite low contamination level. These results were encouraging with regards to processes in France, Belgium and Switzerland that containment and transfers of contaminants are well managed.

Nevertheless, contamination on the table-tops and keyboards can be still an issue and all preventing measures intended for reducing this contamination was encouraged.

For the 19^th GERPAC conference, a complementary study funded by GERPAC was proposed for GERPAC members in collaboration with Exposure Control to assess the areas dedicated to analytical control. To the best of our knowledge, the results of surface contamination of this special location was not yet clearly addressed. Only few hospitals pharmacies have dedicated analytical control method for batch release of the cytotoxic drug. Three surface locations around the analytical material were selected and two cytotoxic drugs (cyclophosphamide, 5FU) searched in the samples. A specific survey was joined to the analysis study to identify the environment of the analytical control and protective measure implemented with regards to that activity. The results and conclusions from this study will be given at the conference.