Health and Safety in the UK Pharmaceutical Industry: A Report

This report delves into the critical aspects of health and safety within the pharmaceutical industry, focusing on the manufacturing and storage departments of a selected organization. It identifies potential hazards, such as toxicity from raw materials, workplace safety risks associated with machinery, and the dangers of liquid nitrogen in storage. The report assesses the company's implemented safety measures, including the use of personal protective equipment, spillage control, and fire prevention systems. Furthermore, it examines relevant hazard safety protocols and legislative standards, comparing them to the practices within the chemical industry. The report highlights the importance of adhering to health and safety regulations to protect workers and ensure the safe handling of hazardous materials and processes within the pharmaceutical sector. The report also emphasizes the need for continuous improvement and vigilance to minimize risks and prevent accidents.

Running head: HEALTH AND SAFETY IN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY
Health and safety in pharmaceutical industry
Name of the student:
Name if the university:
Author note:

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HEALTH AND SAFETY IN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY
Table of Contents
Introduction: 2
Brief review of the organization selected: 3
Potential hazards in departments and the safety measures appointed: 4
Health and safety measures by the company: 5
Hazard safety protocols legislations: 6
Difference with a chemical industry: 7
Conclusion: 8
References: 10

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Introduction:
Health care has had a revolutionary change in the global market and each and every sector of
health care industry is now advancing at an appreciable rate all over the world. The fast paced
progress in the health care industry have been aided by the progressive technological revolution
in the infrastructure of the health care industries. However, alongside of the boost provided by
the technological innovation, the progress of the pharmaceutical industry cannot be ignored
either. It can be stated that the health care sector of UK has enhanced considerably in the past
few decades and the growing pharmaceutical industry has been an important contributor of the
success that the health care industry has attained in this demographic. On a more elaborative
note, more than 65000 people in the United Kingdom are now employed in the pharmaceutical
industry; and along with that a whooping £2.6 billion revenue to the GDP of United Kingdom at
a stretch. However, despite the increasing demand of this highly profitable industry, the risks
associated has to be mentioned in this account as well (Pangestuti and Kim 2011).
A pharmaceutical industry deals with many hazardous chemical and active ingredients on a
daily level and many of them are raw agents with no specialized understanding of the actual
toxicity levels. There are many divisions within an operational pharmaceutical industry and
mostly the sectors like research and development, manufacturing and the storage departments are
the sections that deal with many pharmacologically activated agents that can be the cause to may
physiological and metabolic hazards to human bodies. Although the progress in the medication
industry is the need of the hour and the discovery of new medication can not be abandoned at
any point (Agyei and Danquah 2011). That is the reason there are many health and safety
protocols legislated by the global and national authorities to avoid the chances of any adverse

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events. This assignment will attempt to focus on two particular departments, manufacturing and
storage within a pharmaceutical industry to discover the possible hazards and measures taken to
avoid them, and will attempt to compare them to legislative protocols within the pharmaceutical
industry and the practice standards of chemical industries.
Brief review of the organization selected:
Scientific industries are the need of the hour for the society and in case of the health acre
industry, the health needs of the generation is increasing every day. It has to be understood in
this context that the complexities of the health care concerns are increasing with the deteriorating
life style and hence the health need are demanding better and more functional medication and
treatment options (Deblonde and Hartemann 2013). Hence, the pharmaceutical industries are
now facing optimal demands and in order to address the needs the manufacturing rates and pace
have been doubled in the past couple of days as well. Although on the quest for better and more
efficient targeted medication at a more faster pace, the occupational health and safety standards
and protocols are being neglected every day. According to the authors, the pharmaceutical
industry is the section of the scientific organization that faces the most pressing market demands
in the present day scenario. In addition along with that, due to the extremely strict drug discovery
and marketing acts, the pressure on the pharmaceutical industries in the present scenario is
maximal (Boxall et al. 2012). It has to be mentioned in this context that in order to fulfil all the
legislations and to meet the market demands, the pharmaceutical companies often resort to
neglecting the occupational safety protocols. Hence, for this assignment, the chosen scientific
organization chosen is a pharmaceutical organization that is associated with manufacturing the
most of the modified drugs. There were two departments chosen to be reviewed in the program

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and the departments chosen had been the manufacturing department and the storage departments,
where the potential safety hazards are the maximal.
Potential hazards in departments and the safety measures appointed:
The visit to the pharmaceutical industry had the primary objective to discover the basic and
most frequently practiced occupational health and safety measures and how justified these
measures are in the light of the potential hazards prevalent in both of the departments (Charoo
and Ali 2013).
The very first department visited had been the manufacturing department, where the health
risks were much more heightened due to the fact that the most of the pharmacologically activated
raw agents were handled and utilized in this section. On a more elaborative note, it has to be
mentioned that in case of a pharmaceutical industry, the manufacturing of drugs can be neatly
divided into two main subdivisions, the primary or bulk production of the active ingredients and
followed by the dosage associated secondary manufacturing procedure. According to the
Mamtani et al. (2011), the pharmaceutical product manufacturing is much like the pesticide
manufacturing, like both of the industries, the active ingredient is the focus of the entre
procedure and the concentration of the agents are usually within the range of 0.1 to 10%. Hence,
the very first possible hazard in the manufacturing department can be the toxicity hazard; now it
has to be mentioned in this context that the most frequently observed and reported contributing
factor behind the health hazards to the workers in a pharmaceutical industry is the toxicity
hazard. There were various objects discovered to be possibly toxic to the health and safety of the
workers of the pharmaceutical company, like the active agents, binders, fillers, flavouring and
bulking agents, preservatives, antioxidants, and pharmaceutical solvents (Oldenkamp et al.

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2014). Hence, the occupational health and safety risk to exposure is the most impactful risk
encountered in the visit to the manufacturing department. Another safety risk to the staff of the
manufacturing department had been the workplace safety hazards associated with moving
machine parts. Equipments, high pressure steams, and heating machineries. Last risks identified
in the manufacturing departments had been the fugitive emissions from the leaking pumps,
valves and manifold stations, especially during the processes of extraction and purification, in
such cases the risk of fire hazards has been discovered as well.
The next department under focus of the study had been the storage department. Now it has to
be mentioned that the storage departments of any pharmaceutical industry has to maintain the
most safe and secure environment for the drugs, and hence the safety risks identified were also
minimal in this case. The very first risk identified had been the chances of spillage and leakage
of the liquid nitrogen used for the cryopreservation of certain drugs. The leakage of the liquid
nitrogen can lead to a sudden fire and in case of exposure, respiratory disorders can also occur.
The company had taken spillage care essentially, so no direct spillage threat was discovered
during the visit. Now it has to be mentioned that the possibility of sublimation of a certain drugs
had not been taken into consideration, hence the sublimation and the resultant toxic fumes and
vapours can cause exposure risks for the staff as well.
Health and safety measures by the company:
Now coming to the safety measures taken by the company, the most potent measure taken by
the company had been the mandatory usage of the personal protection attire for the staff that
worked in both the manufacturing and storage section of the company. It hast to be mentioned
that the according to the most important of the legislation the most of the threats to exposure in

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any of the pharmaceutical industry can be avoided by the correct and mandatory usage of
personal protection equipments. Along with the customary overalls, gloves and masks, the
workers also were mandatorily made to wear protective eye gears and ear buds to avoid even the
minimal chances or exposure risks. For any leakage and spillage safety, the company had taken
extra vigilance efforts to ensure that if any spillage has occurred it is taken care of very quickly
and with as minimal amount of exposure risks as possible. However, the hydraulics
infrastructure of the company is not up to the mark and that is the reason why the risks for
moving heavy objects have been not taken care of optimally (Burke et al. 2011). However, there
are safety guards in case of the heavy machinery, however they are only fixed safety guards. In
case of avoiding the fire related hazards, the probability of the particular hazards were avoided
by the installation of the thermal expansion detectors, which will detect any chances fire hazards
before it can happen. Along with that, the heat insulation technology in the company coupled
with the well planed and properly ventilated design of the operational space avoids any chances
of a fire risk escalating. In case of the rightful storage of the drugs, the company follows the
regular protocol with no innovative efforts. For instance, the air-tight contamination free storing
criteria is met diligently, although there is no care given to the liquid nitrogen that is used for the
storing purposes. Along with that, a very minimal care is given to the prospect of the
sublimation properties of the few drugs and the resultant hazards that can occur (McDonald and
Vital 2016).
Hazard safety protocols legislations:
Occupation health and safety can be considered as one of the key priorities of the public
services sector and there are many national authorities involved with the process of designing
and enforcing the legislative standards. It has to be mentioned that the sector for occupational

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health and safety is maintained with a common set of guidelines all across United Kingdom. The
decisive authorities are the secretarial boards of different states and the parliament members for
the activities that are occurring in case of the HSE activities in the nation (Hse.gov.uk. 2018).
The guidelines are known as the approved codes of practice and are complied to throughout the
different industrial sectors. In this case the health and safety at work act provides the necessary
guidelines and protocols for the pharmaceutical industries to follow. There are four main
objectives that the industrial sector has to follow in order to maintain optimal occupational health
and safety. The very first requirement of the act is to secure health, safety and welfare of all the
staff at the workplace. This section relates to the overall hazard risk assessment and avoidance of
the entire infrastructure. For instance for the industry visited for this assignments, this section
relates to the maintaining of the working station and the machinery well maintained and risk free.
The second guidelines are to protect the staff from all the risks and safety hazards arising from
the activities that are performed in the workplace (Hse.gov.uk. 2018). It has to be mentioned that
the company has taken enough efforts to the individual care and protection if their staff and
hence this standard can be considered adhered to. The next standard implies control and storage
of explosives and highly inflammable toxic substances in the workplace. Now it has to be
mentioned that for the industry under focus for this assignment, commendable care has been take
to avoid any possible fire hazards, however, in case of care of inflammable substances prone to
sublimation, extra efforts for maintenance is required (Robson et al. 2012). The very last
standard implies controlling the emission into the atmosphere of any offensive substance, the
company’s efforts at maintaining and monitoring the safety and security of the drugs can be
appreciated. Apart from the emission risk of the liquid nitrogen used for the storage purposes, no
other emission risks were discovered.

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Difference with a chemical industry:
Despite the superficial similarities between two of the industries, the pharmaceutical industry
and the chemical industry are two very different sectors, and the operational characteristics for
both of the industries also bear stark differences. It has to be stated here that the chemical
industry and the pharmaceutical industry both deals with chemical active reagents and the
manufacturing and storage procedures are also very similar, the although the different lies in the
operational and business process management, the pressure of market demands, and countless
legislations and protocols to comply to. It has to be acknowledged in this context that the
pharmaceutical industries are focussed on the plant derived products and their extraction and
modifications, whereas the chemical industries rely on the chemical reactions and extraction
processes more prevalently, hence the nature of the occupational health and safety measures
taken in both the industries are also very different (Kennedy et al. 2010). For instance, the use of
heavy machinery is much more in case of a regular chemical industry and hence, the health and
safety measures are more directed at the maintenance of the heavy machinery. For instance the
use of different kinds of safety guards, both interlocked and adjustable guards are used in
abundance along with fixed guards in chemical industries. The use of fire extinguishing in case
of chemical industries are not as advanced as in the pharmaceutical industries, and the occasional
use of UV or IR detectors can also be found in certain cases. Another very common safety
practice in case of any large scale chemical industry is the usage of the barrier creams before
handling of the corrosive elements. However, in case of storage and personal protection of the
staff, the safety standards of the chemical and pharmaceutical industry are more or less similar
(Reese 2015).

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Chemical industries are associated with hazards that are based on the mishaps and errors with
the heavy machinery and highly inflammable and sublimable chemical components and reagents.
And that is the reason the health and safety measures that are applicable to a chemical Industry
are not directly transferable to the scenario of a pharmaceutical industry. As mentioned above in
case of the chemical industry, the safety measures such as different kinds of machinery guards
and advanced fire sensing and extinguishing technology is more beneficial for the staff of a
chemical industry undoubtedly. Although for a pharmaceutical industry, the machinery that are
generally used are not always as huge and heavy when compared to chemical Industry and on the
other hand, Pharmaceutical industries generally has equipment range that is more operational on
the highly technical and expensive equipments compatible with the assessment and testing of
plant based active reagents and drugs. Hence in case of this industry the health and safety
hazards as well include risk of exposure and contamination more than anything. Hence health
and safety measures for pharmaceutical industry has to emphasize more on the personal safety
and protection of the staff from the different exposure risks rather than evacuation or operational
setting based safety hazard management (Boxall et al. 2012). For the pharmaceutical industry
under consideration for this industry the most of the health and safety emphasis had been on the
personal protection of the staff. On a more elaborative note, the personal protection gears that
were provided to the staff of the company where to be used by a mandatory policy, non
compliance to which can even cost monetary fine and remuneration based consequences for the
staff. The extra emphasis on ear buds and eye gears along with the customary overall gloves and
mask also emphasizes on protecting the basic health and safety of the stuff that is at huge risk
due to different exposure hazards in a pharmaceutical industry. Hence it can be stated that the
health and safety measures that were taken by the company where in complete coordination to

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the health and safety needs of a pharmaceutical industry and maintains the specialized contrast
that is followed in a regular chemical industry (Kennedy et al. 2010).
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, it can be mentioned that the importance of the pharmaceutical industry
is maximal in the present time and day and that is the reason the market needs of the
pharmaceutical industry is going every day. However, it has to be mentioned that in order to
cope with the increasing demands, the occupational health and safety of the staff must not be
ignored as well. Moreover, the excellence and progress of any industry is acutely dependent on
the competence and productivity of the staff. Hence, the industry managerial authorities must
also take adequate measures to safeguard the health and welfare of the staff as well. The
pharmaceutical industry chosen for the assignments had a number of flaws in case of the
compliance to the health and safety regulations, although some of the measures were
commendable as well. Although, extra efforts should be invested in order to improve the
occupational health and safety of the company.