What is Fentanyl?
Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid, used in treating severe pain, such as advanced cancer and post surgery pain. It is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Illicitly manufactured fentanyl is the leading cause of increased overdose deaths.
How much Fentanyl is fatal?
A lethal dose of fentanyl is estimated to be about two to three milligrams, but can vary according to an individual’s body size, tolerance, amount of previous usage and other factors.
Who are at risk for occupational exposure?
- Pre Hospital Patient Care
- Health Care
- Fire fighters
- Clean Up Workers
- Law Enforcement Routine Duties
- Crime Laboratories
- Special Operations and Decontamination
Worsening Epidemic
According to CDC, there are over 81,000 cases of drug overdose in 2020. Half are due to synthetic opioids primarily Fentanyl.
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) also reported increased exposure of law enforcement encounters testing positive for fentanyl.
Safety Protocol: Use PPE
Skin exposure to powdered or dry forms of fentanyl is not likely to cause overdoses in small amounts if promptly removed. Liquid or highly concentrated fentanyl can be absorbed rapidly via skin and can be extremely toxic.
NIOSH: Current safety recommendations is to wear powder free nitrile gloves with a minimum thickness of 5±2 mil.
FDA: Per FDA requirement, glove must be tested against fentanyl to claim resistance.
SW Fentanyl Resistant Gloves
- Tested according to ASTM D6978 Standard Practice for Assessment of Resistance of Medical Gloves to Permeation by Chemotherapy Drugs
- Resistant for more than 4 hours or 240 minutes
- Also tested against simulated gastric acid
- FDA 510K Approved
- Meets NFPA 1999
All models of gloves in inventory will meet fentanyl resistance.
Current models with testing on file are PF-95GW, PF-12TL, PF-95TL, PF-95GY, & MM-11BK.
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