Health Risk Assessment of Occupational Exposure to Hazardous Chemicals in Laboratories of Educational and Therapy Centers of Qom University of Medical Sciences

Nowadays, chemical materials are so much useful in our lives. Laboratory technicians expose to different chemicals. Many consequences of chemical exposure are chronic. In this research the risk of occupational exposure to hazardous chemicals in laboratories of educational and therapy centers of Qom University of medical sciences was assessed. The method of this research was derived from Malaysian department of Health and Safety. Preparation of data gathering tools, team member's selection, job analysis, identification hazardous chemical materials, hazard and exposure rate Assessment and finally determination of risks were important steps of this research. Excel 2010 & SPSS16 software was used for data analysis and for determines correlation between parameters used Mann-Whitney, Kruskal - Wallis and chi square tests. There were no hazardous materials in 30% of laboratories. The risk of hazardous chemical exposure in 6.67%, 20% and 43.33% of laboratories respectively were high, moderate and low. In this study exposure to hazardous chemical materials determined 1.205±1.0047 (mean±sd), hazard rating 2.307±1.64 and risk level 1.769±1.22. Because of exposure to Formaldehyde, pathology labs were the most hazardous areas. There was no significant correlation between marital status, job experience, education level and passing work related training and risk (p>0.05). 26.67% of laboratories had considerable risk. In order to risk control elimination, substitution, engineering and administrative control and applying personal protective equipment recommended.