Inhalable Dust Measurements as a First Approach to Assessing Occupational Exposure in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Occupational exposure to active ingredients in the pharmaceutical industry has been the subject of very few published studies. Nevertheless, operations involving active powdered drugs or dusty operations potentially lead to operator exposure. The aim of this study was to collect occupational exposur...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of occupational and environmental hygiene Vol. 11; no. 2; pp. 85 - 92
Main Authors: Champmartin, C., Clerc, F.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Taylor & Francis Group 01.02.2014
Taylor & Francis LLC
Taylor & Francis
Subjects:
ACCU-CAP
Drug Industry
Dust
Dust - analysis
Ecology, environment
Environmental Monitoring - methods
Exposure
Health
Human exposure
inhalable dust
Inhalation Exposure - analysis
Life Sciences
occupational exposure
Occupational Exposure - analysis
Occupational health
Pharmaceutical industry
Prevention programs
Risk Assessment
Studies
Ventilation
pharmaceutical industry
inhalable dust
Occupational exposure
ACCU-CAP
ISSN:1545-9624, 1545-9632, 1545-9632
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Occupational exposure to active ingredients in the pharmaceutical industry has been the subject of very few published studies. Nevertheless, operations involving active powdered drugs or dusty operations potentially lead to operator exposure. The aim of this study was to collect occupational exposure data in the pharmaceutical industry for production processes involving powdered active ingredients. While the possibility of assessing drug exposure from dust level is examined, this article focuses on inhalable dust exposure, without taking chemical risk into account. A total of 377 atmospheric (ambient and personal) samples were collected in nine drug production sites (pharmaceutical companies and contract manufacturing organizations) and the dust levels were assessed. For each sample, relevant contextual information was collected. A wide range of results was observed, both site- and operation-dependent. Exposure to inhalable dust levels varied from 0.01 mg/m 3 to 135 mg/m 3 . Though restricted to dust exposure, the study highlighted some potentially critical situations or operations, in particular manual tasks (loading, unloading, mechanical actions) performed in open systems. Simple preventive measures such as ventilation, containment, and minimization of manual handling should reduce dust emissions and workers' exposure to inhalable dust.
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ISSN:1545-9624
1545-9632
1545-9632
DOI:10.1080/15459624.2013.843781