OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE TO ANESTHETIC-GASES - DIFFERENTIATION AND STRESS STRUCTURES

The Exposures and stresses prevalent in the occupational area of anaes thesia has, to date, received little attention. This is due in the fir st instance to a lack of MAK (maximum working place concentration) val ues for most of the modern volatile anaesthetic agents, and the multif actorial still largely unknown nature of the ''stress structure '' of this workplace. The aim of the present study was to carry out an ergon omic survey of the ''stress structure '', to identify highly polluted work areas, to quantify the major stress factor, namely the volatile a naesthetic gases, and to interview the anaesthesia team about their st ress levels. The results of the cooperation between anaesthetists, erg onomists, specialists in occupational medicine, toxicologists and neur ophysiologists provide a basis for determining the multifactorial aspe cts of the structure, the anaesthesia workplace, for identifying the m ajor areas of stress and.for developing a spectrum of possible ways of reducing such stresses and, finally, suggesting possibilities for mon itoring the highly individual exposure and stress situations of anaest hetists using neurophysiological methods.