At its January 2006 meeting, the Board of Directors approved several resolutions amending the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. These approved amendments relate to the public hearing conducted in the fall of 2005.

The Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, in part, requires that all mixing, preparation and priming of administrative sets with a cytotoxic drug be performed in a designated Class II Type B biological safety cabinet (section 6.53).

Administrative sets of cytotoxic drugs delivered by syringe are often primed outside a biological safety cabinet (e.g., in a clinic, doctor’s office, or client’s home), prior to injection, in contravention with the regulations. The priming of syringes containing low dosage cytotoxic drugs need not be done inside a biological safety cabinet because the risk of exposure to the cytotoxic drugs during this activity is low if appropriate precautions/procedures are followed.

In light of the low risk of exposure to low dosage cytotoxic drugs when priming a syringe, and given that in many cases priming an administrative set in a safety cabinet is impractical, the amendments permit, in accordance with safe work procedures, the priming of syringes containing cytotoxic drugs outside a safety cabinet.

The amendments come into effect on May 17, 2006.