Posted By Bryn Maidment Lance Have they issued a press release or similar? Must admit that I haven't heard about this move, which will probably affect the majority of Trusts in the UK and Europe. Being the cynic it may just be a scare story designed to make more Trusts move over to using their Cidex OPA which of course is exorbitantly expensive. This cost is even more difficult to accept when the reps and all the publicity goes to great length to stress that OPA is 99.25% water. I think a careful assessment is needed of all the alternatives - they all have drawbacks. Personally, my Trust ditched Cidex 4 years ago in favour of Perasafe. Up until recently Cidex was only used in our Clinical Investigation Unit but it was very well controlled. They did dally with Cidex OPA for a little while until the very real cost implication hit them...back to Cidex!! Choose carefully, make sure there is a reduction in risk and not a simple swap of one risk for another. Hopefully we've been fairly pro-active in this Trust - if you'd like to discuss more detail drop me an e.mail Regards Bryn

Posted By Vincent Shields The following information was posted by the TUC. It may be of some use in clarifying the point: - Asthma-causing disinfectant replaced not scrapped Last week’s Risks reported that Johnson and Johnson had decided to withdraw Cidex, the glutaraldehyde-based disinfectant that has caused so many cases of asthma. Further investigations show that the glute-based Cidex will be replaced with another version of Cidex whose active ingredient is also hazardous, but used in very much lower quantities which, the company claims, will cause no problems. TUC’s Owen Tudor commented: 'If the company is right, then this is the first scalp for the asthma ACoP due in the summer - glutaraldehyde is one of the top eight asthmagens that the HSC wants to see prioritised. And if the company’s claims prove reliable, then this is a clear case of substitution, something the TUC wants to see more of in defeating work-related asthma.'