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Scholarly Commons > HCA Healthcare Journal > Vol. 7 > Iss. 5 (2026)

 

Keywords

anesthetics; anesthesia; inhalation anesthetics; occupational air pollutants; environmental exposure; nurses; occupational exposure; occupational health; postanesthesia nursing; personal protective equipment; waste anesthetic gases; WAGs

Disciplines

Nursing | Occupational and Environmental Health Nursing | Perioperative, Operating Room and Surgical Nursing

Abstract

Background

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recognizes the negative health impact of occupational exposure to anesthetic gases in the operating room. As a result, OSHA has implemented regulations, engineering controls, and regular air quality surveillance programs to protect surgical staff. However, immediate postoperative patients exhale waste anesthetic gases (WAGs) into the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) environment, exposing nurses to occupational health risks, including headaches, fatigue, organ damage, cancer, and reproductive complications. The PACU lacks any regulations or even recognition of this safety issue; in fact, most nurses and leadership are unaware. One potential solution, a scavenging oxygen mask system used on these patients, captures WAGs while delivering oxygen and protecting nurses. This mask was tested at a community surgery center and was then permanently implemented as a standard. Additional testing of the scavenging oxygen mask system at Purdue University a few years later revealed the mask also removed over 94% of microbes/pathogens from patients’ exhaled breath. This additional health benefit could also protect PACU nurses from patients’ expired respiratory infectious particles, as it is common practice in the PACU for patients to cough and breathe deeply to enhance their recovery. To test this potential benefit, this PACU examined the scavenging mask’s effect on nurses’ infectious illness as measured by nurse absenteeism.

Methods

A retrospective analysis of nurse callouts and absenteeism for infectious illnesses or WAGs exposure symptoms was completed comparing 4 years preimplementation and 3 years postimplementation of the scavenging masks at a single hospital-based PACU.

Results

The surgery center experienced significantly reduced PACU nurse callouts due to infectious illnesses by approximately 60% (P = .034) after the implementation of the scavenging mask system.

Conclusion

This research highlights the dual benefit of WAG removal and respiratory infection control, supporting the scavenging mask’s effectiveness in safeguarding health care workers (HCWs).

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