Occupational hazards in hospitals: accidents, radiation, exposure to noxious chemicals, drug addiction and psychic problems, and assault.

Except for infectious diseases all the main occupational hazards affecting health workers are reviewed: accidents (explosions, fires, electrical accidents, and other sources of injury); radiation (stochastic and non-stochastic effects, protective measures, and personnel most at risk); exposure to noxious chemicals, whose effects may be either local (allergic eczema) or generalised (cancer, mutations), particular attention being paid to the hazards presented by formol, ethylene oxide, cytostatics, and anaesthetic gases; drug addiction (which is more common among health workers than the general population) and psychic problems associated with promotion, shift work, and emotional stress; and assault (various types of assault suffered by health workers, its causes, and the characterisation of the most aggressive patients).