Hazardous Drugs

Two syringes & two bottles of colored liquids with some pills and capsules on top of a bag labeled 'Chemotherapy Drug' Caption: Workers handling hazardous drugs need protection to prevent potentially harmful exposure.Potentially harmful exposure can occur when you handle or work around hazardous drugs. These drugs include antineoplastic cytotoxic medications, anesthetics, anti-viral drugs, hormones, and others.

Hazardous drugs can cause serious acute and chronic health effects such as skin rashes, fertility problems, genetic damage, birth defects, organ toxicity, and possibly leukemia and other cancers.

Exposure occurs during manufacturing and packaging, receiving, preparation and administration, and cleaning and disposal activities.

Clinical and non-clinical workers with potential exposure include:

  • Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.
  • Nurses.
  • Physician assistants.
  • Physicians.
  • Nursing home, home health care, and assistive care staff.
  • Housekeeping and environmental services staff (custodial, laundry, and waste handling workers).
  • Shipping and receiving personnel.
  • Veterinarians and veterinary technicians and assistants.

Draft Model Program Templates

L&I has been working on three draft model program templates – one for small veterinary clinics, one for small pharmacies and one for small health care clinics – that are designed to help employers create the hazardous drug control plan that is required by the Hazardous Drug rule, WAC 296-62-500 (leg.wa.gov).

L&I is asking for comments on these drafts in an effort to make them easy to understand and use.  Any and all comments are welcome from all interested stakeholders. At the June 12th Hazardous Drug Advisory Committee meeting, committee members requested that the department give stakeholders additional time to review these three draft templates and provide comments. After considering their comments the department has decided to extend the deadline for comments until 5:00 PM on Wednesday, July 10th, 2013. 

A meeting is scheduled from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM on July 10th at the L&I headquarters building in Tumwater to discuss the drafts and comments that have been received.  We will send out additional information in advance of that meeting to the Hazardous Drugs Listserv.

Comments can be directed to:

Veda McCall
Department of Labor and Industries
360-902-5436
Veda.mccall@lni.wa.gov

Pam Edwards
Department of Labor and Industries
360-902-6457
Edwp235@lni.wa.gov


Department of Labor and Industries
DOSH Technical Services
Veda McCall
PO Box 44610
Olympia, WA 98504-4610

Important Dates

L&I's hazardous drugs rule was adopted on January 3, 2012. The rule will be implemented in 3 stages beginning January 1, 2015. L&I has issued a directive to agency enforcement staff that delays all enforcement dates by one year (366 KB PDF). During the delay in enforcement, L&I will continue to cite hazards identified during compliance inspections or consultation visits under existing safety and health rules, such as Hazard Communication, Accident Prevention Program or PPE:

By:

Employers must have:

January 1, 2015

Stage 1:  Developed and implemented a written hazardous drugs control program.

July 1, 2015

Stage 2:  Provided employee training.

January 1, 2016

Stage 3:  Installed appropriate ventilated cabinets.

Hazardous Drugs Advisory Committee

The Hazardous Drugs Advisory Committee is working to create sample programs, training materials, and other resources to help employers comply with rule requirements. See details about what this group is doing and when it meets.

Related topics:

How can I get help from L&I?

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