Pharmacy Practice News: “The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) held a meeting today in Cincinnati to discuss a universal closed-system drug-transfer device (CSTD) testing protocol, which is being developed… The new protocol will test both physical barrier systems, which block the intake of environmental contaminants or the unintended release of hazardous drugs into the environment; and air-cleaning systems, which clean or filter vapors to prevent the unintended release of drug or the intake of environmental contaminants… NIOSH released a draft test protocol last year to evaluate the efficacy of physical barrier–type CSTDs to see whether they prevented hazardous drugs from escaping the closed system. After hearing from the public and meeting with various stakeholders, NIOSH was asked to develop a new performance test protocol for air-cleaning CSTDs. Instead of developing a completely new protocol, NIOSH decided to develop a universal one that addressed both types of systems.”
Apparently the comments made an impact because NIOSH is going back to the drawing board to try and come up with a universal protocol to meet the testing needs for all CSTD systems. However, one has to wonder if the damage is already done. For the past several months pharmacies have been making decisions on which CSTD to use based on information in the draft vapor containment protocol. Right or wrong, that’s the truth of the matter. I have to believe that some of the companies in this space have been irreparably harmed. Only time will tell.