Protection against Surgical Smoke petition
For too long perioperative staff have been suffering breathing issues, eye irritation and on-going health complications due to exposure to diathermy/laser plume – also known as surgical smoke.
If the surgical smoke is not evacuated or protected against sufficiently, using adequate respiratory protective equipment (RPE), any member of staff in the immediate vicinity could be inhaling noxious substances, such as carcinogenic gases, aerosolised blood and other harmful compounds such as hydrogen cyanide.
Despite the harmful effects of surgical smoke being well documented, in the UK it is currently the hospital and leading Consultant’s choice as to whether local exhaust ventilation and RPE are used or not.
In hope to change this, a new petition has been created on the government’s petition.parliament.uk website calling to make it “mandatory for all hospital theatres to evacuate diathermy tissue smoke plume.”
Created just four days ago, the petition already has over 4,800 signatures and counting. To add your name to the list, or to find out more, follow the link below: