Nursing workers' exposure to chemical products at a public universitary hospital in São Paulo city [Exposição dos trabalhadores de enfermagem às cargas químicas em um hospital público universitário da cidade de São Paulo.]

Abstract

This study aimed to identify exposure to chemical loads as perceived by nursing workers at the studied institution, disclose their health problems in dealing with chemical products and analyze their suggestions for the decrease or elimination of exposure-related health problems. This research was carried out at the São Paulo University Hospital, Brazil--HU-USP. 430 nursing workers were studied. A questionnaire was used for data collection. Results showed that health workers detected 145 chemical substances. The most frequent health problems were related to skin problems (58.14%). 23.72% of the study participants proposed the use of self-protection equipment to decrease or eliminate exposure to these products.