Join us for a webinar on Thursday 2 July, 13:00 – 14:00 CET examining the occupational risks of formaldehyde exposure in healthcare and the practical steps organisations can take to protect their workforce.

This webinar will bring together regulatory expertise and international occupational health insight to examine the hazards facing healthcare workers who handle formalin, the legal obligations now placed on employers under EU and UK law, and the clinical and systemic changes needed to make safer practice a reality.

Hosted by the European Biosafety Network (EBN) with presentations from Josh Cobb, Secretary of the European Biosafety Network, and Dr Acran Selman Navarro, Chair of the ICOH Scientific Committee on Occupational Health for Health Workers.

Josh Cobb will draw on the EBN’s research to examine the occupational risks posed by formalin and formaldehyde in diagnostic pathology and surgical settings. He will explore why exposure in laboratories and operating theatres can reach concentrations far exceeding typical indoor levels, why harm can occur even within current regulatory limits, and why the updated CMRD (2022) and COSHH Regulations now require employers to eliminate exposure at source rather than rely on PPE and ventilation alone. He will also examine the evidence for closed-system specimen containers as the proven solution that directly meets this legal standard.

Dr Acran Selman Navarro will address the broader occupational health framework within which these clinical risks sit. He will examine the health effects of work-related formaldehyde exposure, what rigorous exposure controls look like in practice, and how healthcare organisations can strengthen worker training and awareness. He will also consider how continuous monitoring programmes can be established to track and reduce exposure over time.

Together, the session will examine a workforce routinely exposed to a recognised carcinogen, often without adequate protection, and what employers, safety leads, and policymakers must do to meet both their legal obligations and their duty of care.

This session is intended for laboratory managers, theatre leads, infection prevention and control professionals, occupational health teams, safety leads, and policymakers with an interest in the safe handling of formaldehyde in healthcare and the practical and regulatory changes needed to better protect the workforce.

Sign up here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/fy9dvnRXS6WQgH4k3k-JYg