Virginia the next state to go surgical smoke-free

On March 28, 2024, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin signed the state’s smoke evacuation bills, SB 537 and HB 763, into law, making Virginia the 17^th state to go surgical smoke-free.

Janet Shortt, President, AORN Chapter 4702, brought the issue of surgical smoke in the operating room to the Virginia Nurses Association which agreed to add surgical smoke evacuation legislation to their policy agenda for 2024. Said Shortt, “On behalf of my perioperative colleagues across the state, I’m thrilled that we could make Virginia one of the next states to go surgical smoke-free.”

In the fall of 2023, AORN conducted a survey of members in Virginia to gather information on the availability and usage of surgical smoke evacuation equipment in the state. Ninety-four percent of survey respondents indicated that their facility had smoke evacuation equipment, but only 26% responded that surgical smoke was always evacuated during smoke-generating procedures. This data was critical to convincing legislators that a smoke evacuation law was necessary to ensure that the smoke evacuation equipment already purchased by facilities would be used consistently to protect the health and safety of the OR staff and patients.

Under the new law, hospitals, and outpatient surgery centers where surgical procedures are performed must adopt a policy requiring the use of surgical smoke evacuation systems for surgical procedures likely to generate surgical smoke.