Starting January 1, 2014, health care workers in California will have new protections in the form of legislation that establishes workplace safety practices for the safe handling of chemotherapy drugs.

AB 1202 requires the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health to adopt, as state regulations, recommendations by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) for reducing exposures of health care workers to hazardous drugs. Currently those recommendations are followed on a voluntary basis.