FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
--Concerns Over Potential Health Risks Prompt Warning--
Silver Spring, MD - The American Nurses Association (ANA) joins with Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), a coalition for environmentally responsible health care, in urging hospitals, manufacturers and health care professionals to switch to DEHP-free medical devices in order to protect sick infants and other at-risk patients from phthalates, in light of a new report by the National Toxicology Program (NTP). In a new report posted in December, NTP expressed "serious concern" that diethylhexyl-phthalate (DEHP), a chemical that leaches out of PVC plastic medical devices, may harm infant males undergoing intensive medical treatments. The NTP scientists are also concerned that DEHP exposure may specifically harm the sons of pregnant and breastfeeding women receiving medical treatments. Animal testing that is generally agreed to be relevant to humans shows that DEHP can cause testicular damage, reduced fertility, abnormal sperm counts, miscarriage and birth defects. "The American Nurses Association is an advocate for environmental health and safety in the workplace," remarked President Rebecca M. Patton, MSN, RN, CNOR. "We support any effort to educate nurses about the potentially harmful chemicals used in health care settings. The ANA will work to ensure nurses have full access to information about the potentially hazardous chemicals to which nurses, other health care workers, patients and communities in general are exposed." In 2006, the American Nurses Association's House of Delegates passed a resolution concerning nursing practice, chemical exposure and right-to-know. The ANA resolved to work locally, nationally and globally to reduce the use of toxic chemicals and to demand adequate information on the health effects of chemicals. "There is no reason that pregnant women and parents of sick infants should have to worry about toxic chemicals leaching out of medical devices," said Anna Gilmore Hall, RN, executive director, Health Care Without Harm. "As an immediate first step, the FDA should require direct labeling of every DEHP-containing device so that health care providers will know which ones to avoid." The American Nurses Association and HCWH urge health professional associations to notify their members of the risks of DEHP products, and recommend that doctors and nurses treating neonates, infants and pregnant women use available and effective DEHP-free alternatives. For a list of alternatives and more information, see www.noharm.org/pvcDehp/issue. In its new review, the NTP agreed with a 2001 expert panel that DEHP poses a risk to human development and reproduction. The NTP review is based on an extensive analysis of the latest science on DEHP exposure and toxicity. Despite longstanding claims by medical device manufacturers that the chemical is of no concern to humans, the NTP concluded otherwise. Four years ago the FDA warned health care providers to use alternatives to DEHP-containing devices for some patients, see www.fda.gov/cdrh/safety/dehp.html. The NTP report is posted at: http://cerhr.niehs.nih.gov/chemicals/dehp/DEHP-Monograph.pdf. DEHP is one of several members of the phthalate family of chemicals that can interfere with male reproductive tract development. Other similarly-acting phthalates are added to a wide variety of consumer products; including cosmetics, building materials, furnishings and pharmaceuticals among others. According to tests by the Center for Disease Control, most people are exposed to the different phthalates from multiple sources, making the total cumulative exposure a matter of considerable concern. The NTP did not take these additive exposures into account when coming to their conclusions about DEHP. # # # # # #
January 19, 2007
CONTACT:
Mary McNamara, 301-628-5198
Mary Stewart, 301-628-5038
ANA And Health Care Without Harm Urge Hospitals And Health Care Professionals To Switch To DEHP-Free Medical Devices
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