Toxicity of inhalational anaesthesia: long-term exposure of anaesthetic personnel—environmental pollution

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Summary The effects of pollution from waste anaesthetic gases are still unclear, but they may cause adverse effects in both exposed operating-room personnel or have a more global impact on the environment. A standardization of measuring operating-room pollution has been developed utilizing a time averaged value. The amount that occurs varies greatly, although is drastically reduced by scavenging. There appears to be little evidence that it increases the incidence of tumours in exposed workers. However, there is some evidence suggesting that it may have unfavorable effects on pregnant women and, recently, it has been suggested that it may reduce conception rates. There is evidence of a small effect on the immune system, although this is probably of no clinical relevance. Its effects on the environment are mostly benign as the volatile anaesthetics are ozone friendly. However, N 2 O does increase the ‘greenhouse' effect, although anaesthetic use, when compared with other methods of N 2 O production, is small. Overall, the evidence for a severe problem with pollution from anaesthetic waste gases is small.