Fumigation

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I work in a small hospital with a bed capacity of 130 beds. Our Operating theatre needed to be fumigated and what we did was to put some +or- 0.5grams of potassium permanganate in small bowls and to it we added +or- 20mls of formaldehyde. These small bowls were placed in all the rooms. the reaction of the mixture was so instateneuos releasing a very irritating gas to the eyes the respiratory system. We sealed and closed theatre for 10 days and when we opened it for claening, that gas was still there. We had to clean it in that state because we had no choice. some nurses were put off sick because of this. How safe is this method? How do you guys do it?

Kapsk :uhoh3:

Specializes in O.R., ED, M/S.

Why did you need to fumigate? From your post I can see it isn't as easy as calling the Orkin man or Clarks( these are pest control companies). My answer would be for you to contact our CDC here in the states and see if they could help you on the subject. Sounds pretty dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. Mike

another good place to ask is aorn who, i think, has an international committee for operating room practice. go to http://www.aorn.org and go to the "practice" part of the menu, and then to "international." it will give you some email addresses to help.

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