Most businesses and cities across the U.S. have No Smoking policies in place to protect the health of their workers and citizens. When was the last time you saw someone smoking inside a hospital, or even at the front entrance to a medical facility? If smoking isn't allowed in most public places, why would it be allowed inside a bioskills lab event?

Cautery is frequently used during lab events, particularly for spine, orthopaedic, laparoscopic, hand, and plastics procedures. Scientific evidence has shown that 1 gram of ablated tissue (10 minutes of Bovie/ESU use) is equal to the smoke of 6 cigarettes for electrocauterization, as to total mutagenicity.** Over 40 different chemicals have been isolated within surgical smoke including benzene, toluene, formaldehyde, and carbon monoxide. Many of these chemicals also exist within cigarette smoke.

Surgeons, residents, lab participants and lab staff are all affected by surgical smoke. Using a Bovie for 35 minutes during a 4-hour lab session equals inhaling the smoke equivalent of a pack of cigarettes. If you can smell the foul odor of surgical smoke you're breathing it into your lungs. Please stop smoking in the lab!

Contact MEDSource today and ask us how our smoke evacuation products can help protect your staff and your clients from surgical smoke in a lab setting.

 For more information on the hazards of surgical smoke visit the Buffalo Filter website. 

**Tomita, Y., et al, Mutation Research, 1981.