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Published online 17 February 2006 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news060213-12
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Operating-room opiates may get surgeons hooked
Exposure to airborne drugs could increase a doctor's chance of becoming an addict.
Do the faint traces of anaesthetics that waft around operating rooms somehow prime physicians to become drug addicts?
It's not as unlikely a proposal as it sounds. US researchers who have promoted the theory have released their latest findings, and the results strengthen fears that exposure to aerosolized drugs puts anaesthetists and surgeons at risk.
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