Surgical smoke scavenging system CIMPAX C-PURE 750™

Surgical smoke is an occupational hazard, exposing teams to toxic and carcinogenic chemicals as well as viral and biological matter. Protect surgical teams by extracting smoke as it is generated with Cimpax on-tip extraction. Since the early 1980’s surgical smoke has been known to be as mutagenic as cigarette smoke and research since then has shown that it can contain over 40 different hazardous chemicals (many of which such as benzene and toluene are subject to specific exposure limits under COSHH regulations). It has also been shown to contain viable viral and biological matter with 2 gynaecologists having been awarded workplace compensation as a result of cancers found to be caused by HPV in surgical smoke. Add to this the respiratory issues that can impact theatre staff on a day to day basis and it is clear that organisations have a duty of care to protect their theatre teams from the impact of surgical smoke. In short, you wouldn’t operate without PPE, or expect to smoke a cigarette inside your workplace and surgical smoke should be viewed in the same light. The HSE recommend that COSHH risk assessments are carried out on surgical smoke and that local exhaust ventilation or ‘on-tip’ extraction are used to minimise risk to personnel.