Pharmaceutical Industry
The manufacture of both active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished pharmaceutical products frequently involves the processing and storage of hazardous materials. Many of these materials are flammable / combustible and can create fire and explosion hazards in processing equipment and storage facilities. Additional hazards involving uncontrolled thermal runaway may also be present. These arise from the frequently exothermic nature of the reactions used to manufacture both active ingredients and intermediates.
All the above hazards need to be clearly understood, in terms of how, and when, they can arise and what their consequences could be. In this way, suitable control measures can be built into plant designs and operating procedures to minimise risk.
Processes in the pharmaceutical industry most commonly involve batch operations, often with a high degree of manual control. Equipment may be multi-purpose and used for production of a variety of different materials at different processing conditions. Batch operations of this type represent a significant challenge in terms of ensuring suitable and sufficient controls to minimise the risk of a serious incident.
Please download our Pharmaceutical Industry leaflet for further information.
Pratical and pragmatic advice - with safety in mind