Nurses who regularly use chemical disinfectants in the workplace may be at risk for developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.
Researchers used data from Nurses' Health Study II, a U.S.-based cohort study of 116,429 female registered nurses from 14 states. The nurses were enrolled in 1989 and follow-ups have been conducted via questionnaires every two years since.
For the current study, researchers examined 73,262 women who were in a nursing job and had no history of COPD in 2009. They assessed follow-up data for these women from 2009 through 2015.
The study shows 582 nurses reported developing physician-diagnosed COPD. Weekly use of disinfectants to clean surfaces only and to clean medical instruments along with surfaces was associated with developing COPD among nurses.
High-level exposure to several specific disinfectants, such as glutaraldehyde, bleach and hydrogen peroxide, was significantly also linked to COPD incidence among nurses.