Derived from chemicals used to produce mustard gas in World War I, chemo is commonly prescribed by doctors to stop advanced stages of cancer from spreading. Thousands of nurses, pharmacists and technicians providing the therapy to patients have come down with cancer themselves, leading some experts to speculate that the toxic remedy is the culprit.

 

InvestigateWest discovered that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration—which has classified chemo agents as hazardous—“does not regulate exposure to these toxins in the workplace, despite multiple studies documenting ongoing contamination and exposures. Studies as far back as the 1970s have linked increased rates of certain cancers to nurses and physicians.”

 

Nationwide there are about two million medical workers who mix or dispense chemo drugs and another 3.5 million who are involved in the chemo chain, including transport and cleanup of chemo waste.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Lifesaving Drugs, Deadly Consequences (by Carol Smith, InvestigateWest)