BD and ChemoGLO have launched a collaboration that combines rapid contamination screening with quantitative laboratory analysis—offering a dual-method testing approach that strengthens environmental monitoring and protects healthcare workers from hazardous drug exposure. The development arrives as hospitals, compounding pharmacies, and laboratories face rising scrutiny over compliance with hazardous drug handling standards and the need for verifiable exposure data.
The partnership integrates two distinct capabilities. BD’s HD Check System provides point-of-care, qualitative results in approximately 10 minutes, allowing teams to quickly identify potential contamination on high-risk surfaces such as infusion pumps, workstations, isolators, and medication preparation areas. Those same samples can then be shipped to ChemoGLO for liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) testing, producing quantitative results across an expanded list of hazardous drugs within three to five days.
According to Eric Borin, worldwide president of BD Medication Delivery Solutions, the joint workflow supports both immediate decision-making and deeper contamination assessments. Borin noted in the announcement that the combined method “helps pinpoint areas of improvement and reinforces our commitment to healthcare worker safety.”
ChemoGLO CEO Cara Zamboni emphasized that the collaboration advances the shared mission to protect frontline staff, stating that the partnership “combines speed and precision to help facilities act faster and more confidently to safeguard their teams.”
The approach aligns with the recommendations from a 2020 consensus conference on hazardous drug surface contamination, which encouraged institutions to adopt both qualitative and quantitative testing to establish a more complete picture of exposure risk.
Although the news is centered on the healthcare system, the implications extend well into the broader occupational safety and environmental management landscape.
Hospitals and research laboratories face stringent expectations under USP <800>, NIOSH guidelines, and state-level hazardous drug handling rules. These regulations require routine surface contamination assessments, documentation, and remediation procedures. Regulators and accreditation bodies increasingly expect facilities to demonstrate not just the existence of safety protocols, but measurable outcomes supported by defensible data.
Quantitative testing is particularly important for ESG reporting and workforce health metrics. Hazardous drug exposure is recognized as an occupational risk that can affect retention, long-term worker health, and organizational liability. As industries grapple with heightened expectations around chemical transparency—whether PFAS in manufacturing, VOCs in indoor environments, or biological contaminants in research labs—healthcare’s move toward faster, more accurate monitoring reflects a broader shift toward data-rich environmental oversight.
The BD–ChemoGLO collaboration mirrors trends seen across other sectors: contamination testing technologies are becoming more rapid, integrated, and operationally accessible. Energy, industrial, and laboratory environments have adopted similar two-stage testing systems for solvents, metals, and airborne contaminants. In each case, organizations gain the ability to conduct immediate screenings and then confirm or quantify findings using external labs with advanced analytical tools.
For facility, EHS, and compliance managers, the model offers two advantages:
This combination is increasingly viewed as best practice in risk management, especially within environments that handle chemicals, pharmaceutical compounds, or other regulated substances.
As the adoption of dual-method contamination testing expands, the model may serve as a framework for institutions seeking to strengthen environmental quality controls and improve worker protections.
