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Article: Don't be a victim of surgical smoke.
- Article from:
- AORN Journal
- Article date:
- March 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Association of Operating Room Nurses, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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If you saw a low-lying cloud that was labeled clearly with its contents, and the label contained the words benzene, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, methane, phenol, styrene, and toluene, would you go out of your way to walk through that cloud and inhale those toxic chemicals? Of course not. But you expose yourself to these same toxic chemicals each time you participate in a surgical procedure in which smoke from tissue interaction with an electrosurgical device or laser is not evacuated. The aerosols produced when lasers or electrosurgical devices are used contain particulate matter, gases, mutagens, carcinogens-and sometimes, DNA components.(1)
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