title: Hazardous drugs: new challenges, new opportunities.
abstract: Occupational exposure to hazardous drugs can cause harmful effects on health professionals and several protective measures must be taken. Nevertheless, classification of hazardous drugs is not the same in all the published repertoires and the terminology is still confusing: hazardous drugs, biohazardous drugs or risky drugs are terms improperly described and can define very different drugs with a very different hazard profiles. In Spain, there is not an updated official list of hazardous drugs, and healthcare professionals must consider and follow other published lists. In our opinion, it is mandatory to do a consensus among these professionals, administration and labor union organizations in order to clarify some conflictive questions not only in healthcare settings but in investigational and academic scenarios too. These multidisciplinary groups should be involved also in teaching new and non-experienced personnel and in the knowledge reinforcement for the experienced ones.
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy Unit. Hospital Universitario y Politécnico La Fe, Valencia. Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria La Fe, Valencia. Spain.. lopez_edubri@gva.es.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Valero García
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy Unit. Hospital Universitario y Politécnico La Fe, Valencia.. lopez_edubri@gva.es.
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: López Briz
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy Unit. Hospital Universitario y Politécnico La Fe, Valencia.. lopez_edubri@gva.es.
authors.forename: Nieves
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vila Clérigues
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy Unit. Hospital Universitario y Politécnico La Fe, Valencia.. lopez_edubri@gva.es.
authors.forename: Jose Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Poveda Andrés
mesh_terms: D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D015386:Hazardous Substances / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D010607:Pharmacy Service, Hospital; D013030:Spain
chemical_list: D015386:Hazardous Substances; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations