/Home /Policy & Advocacy Imagine what nursing would be like if the FDA did not regulate drugs. There would be no requirement for pre-market testing. There would be no mandate to determine drug efficacy. We would not know about potential side effects (toxicity) or drug interactions. We wouldn’t have recommended doses and administrations. And without labeling requirements and “inserts”, consumers could not make informed decisions about the drugs they take. It would be chaotic and dangerous. It would be scary. Welcome to the reality of chemical safety in the U.S. In the world of chemicals and chemical products (that are non-pharmaceuticals) there is no requirement for pre-market testing for human health risks. We do not know the human health threats posed by the vast majority of chemicals for which we have daily exposures through our air, water, food, and household and personal care products because the research has not been done. We have virtually no idea about the interactions that may occur when we are exposed to two or more products and/or environmental pollutants, i.e. lead in our drinking water and mercury consumed in fish; herbicides that are used on our lawns and pesticide residues on our fruits and vegetables; and so on. Labels on the myriad of household and personal care products are totally insufficient to inform us about potential acute and chronic health effects (including possible carcinogenicity). Nurses are organizing around environmental health issues in a variety of ways – big and small – all of which are helping to raise awareness about the relationship between the environment and human health. In a New Jersey hospital, nurses influenced the selection of floor cleaning products so that less harsh (but equally effective) cleaners were purchased. In a Boston neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), the nurses helped to change the purchasing policies so that the plastic tubing is free of the potentially harmful chemical DEHP. (See www.noharm.org for more information about DEHP). This fall (2007) a new report will be released about nurses’ chemical exposures at work. On a national web-based survey, nurses reported the chemicals that they commonly work with and also reported the types of health problems that they experience. This collaborative project is part of an initiative by the American Nurses Association, the Nurses’ Work Group of Health Care Without Harm, and the University of Maryland School of Nursing to raise awareness about the chemicals that nurses work with and their potential health effects. Through these efforts we hope to engage nurses in a national dialog about the broader issue of chemical safety in our country. There is already a robust conversation occurring among our friends and colleagues in the environmentalist community and nurses are joining in. Two new frameworks for thinking about chemical safety have been developed. In May 2004, Louisville hosted a meeting of groups (including Health Care Without Harm) and individuals whose common goal is to work together on campaigns that protect human health and the environment from exposures to unnecessary harmful chemicals. Through a consensus-building process, a set of guiding principles was created and named after the meeting city. Further Chemical Policy Information: Last Updated: 09/18/2007 at 10:23:50 AM | 
