Abstract: Nurses must protect themselves while handling hazardous drugs or contaminated items. Wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) will reduce contact and prevent any acute or chronic adverse reactions that may occurs from unintentional exposure. This article reviews PPE for anti neoplastic safety and evidence based guidelines for their use. Hazardous drugs are those that meat at least one of the following conditions: carcinogenicity (causes cancer); teratogenity (stops pregnancy or cause birth defects), mutagenic (causes changes in DNA), or other developmental toxicity; reproductive toxicity; organ toxicity at low doses; genotoxicity (damages DNA and leads to mutations(; and structure and toxicity profiles of new drugs that are similar to existing drugs considered hazardous by the above criteria. Many antineoplastics drugs used to treat cancer are considered hazardous to the healthcare team and require precautions, such as designated gowns and gloves, administration equipment such as closed system transfer devices and spill pads, to prevent spills and exposure, and hazardous waste bins.
Some non9antineoplastics drugs, such as antivirals and hormones, are also considered hazardous and thus require similar precautions. This article reviews personal protective equipment (PPE) for antineoplastic safety and evidence-based guidelines for their use.