IV bags contamination by Marker Ink

[Kronos750]

Hi all..

After looking on the web about the real possibilities of IV bags contamination by markers ink here I share what I found.

I asked two fluid producer information about this and look on web.

One producer replied with a citation from Cohen (2006), Medication Erros, pag 142:

"Commercial inks on IV bag labels have undergone rigorous testing to demonstrate their suitability for use, but the inks in markers and other writing tools have not been tested for safe use on IV bags. Volatile chemicals from the ink may reach the solution. Practitioners should indicate the expiration date by placing a label on a portion of the bag that does not come into contact with solution".

At the same time I found on internet an old (1989) study with the opposite result

http://www.anesthesia-analgesia.org/content/69/3/412.1.full.pdf

In my clinical practices I found both ways but hospital recommending not to mark on the IV bag directly, but use a paper label for it, are increasing, even if nobody use a scientific evidence to support this procedure.

[green34]

I would have thought the reasoning behind it was more practical than a risk of contamination. With a marker, it could potentially rub off. I know things that I've marked on with a sharpie that came off. With a piece of paper that sticks to the bag, it is usually brightly colored (I've seen purple, green, and I think the med added papers are pink) and easy to read. So if you need to know if there was anything in the bag, you glance up and see that there indeed something added to that line.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

It has been "theory" for a while...personally I'd rather be safe than sorry AND it does rub off....it is simple to place a piece of tape or blank label on the bag. Most facilites decided to stop this practice ad it was also a privacy violation to not have removable labels on discarded IV bags.

At the same time I found on internet an old (1989) study with the opposite result

I wouldn't base such a decision on a 25-year-old study given that the inks are probably of different compounds, some of which were likely not in existence 25 years ago.

VOCs have the potential to diffuse through plastic and I wouldn't care to have somebody be so cavalier with something infusing into me.

There's no reason to ever write on the part of the bag with the fluid. I usually use a demographic label but will also write on sealed part near where the hanging-hole is.

[RLtinker, LPN]

I have never heard of anyone getting sick form writing on an iv bag with a sharpie. But using tape just makes more sense. It doesn't smear and it is easier to see. Surgical tape, it's the nurses version of sticky notes.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

Suggest you contact the manufacturers of IV solutions and ask them. I will bet you dollars to doughnuts that they have the most current research on this and can cite you facts on the common chemistry involved and the most recent papers, some of which may not have reached the nursing literature. I contact vendors and manufacturers all the time for things like this and they are thrilled to be asked.

[Kronos750]

GRN Tea, I did it, as you can read in the original post. About the old study is just what I found on the web. In my clinical practices I use to mark with a permanent pen a little tape and attach it on the bag. No personal information is in it so there is any privacy problem. By the way this post was intended to stimulate a reflexion about a simple and daily activity nurses does, and seems to have reached my goal!

[melizerd, ASN, RN]

The facilities I've done clinicals at all have labels to go on the bags so that we don't mark on the actual bag. I think it definitely is a better safe than sorry option. The labels get pulled and put into "private" trash that gets incinerated (the container for that is in an office in the nurses station).