Chemical Safety and Hazard Communication Standards for Pharmaceuticals
To meet the demands of millions relying on prescription medications, the pharmaceutical industry must prioritize enhancing chemical safety and hazard communication standards to protect its workers effectively.
- By Mia Barnes
- Feb 20, 2024
The pharmaceutical industry supports millions of people taking prescription medications daily. It must function efficiently to keep up with demand, which starts with protecting its workers. Chemical safety and hazard communication standards for drugs can always improve. These are the primary ways people working in the sector can protect themselves and their team members.
What Is the Hazard Communication Standard?
OSHA created the Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) to ensure chemical manufacturers placed hazard labels on products and communicated protective measures to their employees. It’s much easier to avoid accidents if everyone knows what they’re working with, how to handle it and what the health risks would be if exposure occurred.
Ways to Improve Hazard Communications with Team Members
Although OSHA regulatory compliance is mandatory, pharmaceutical leaders can always improve hazard communications with their teams. These ideas make safety information more well-known outside annual training sessions.
1. Create Updated Safety Data Sheets
OSHA requires distributors and manufacturers to utilize HCS data sheets on all chemical products. They make safety standards and response strategies easily visible, but the information can become outdated if teams don’t make new ones with each companywide manufacturing update.
Reviewing and revising data sheets regularly can become a part of any pharmaceutical leadership team’s schedule. They’ll prevent lapses in things like hazard identification after chemical handling or machinery changes.
2. Make Labels More Informative
HCS labels are another opportunity for improved communication standards for pharmaceutical companies. The labels are part of OSHA’s ongoing effort to make safety efforts visible to everyone in a chemical manufacturing or processing environment. Team leaders can create more informative labels by including chemical-specific response plans to go with the already pictured hazard pictograms.
Individuals making products with a commonly used chemical like dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) may feel comfortable around the organic solvent. Familiarity can cause lapses in remembering safety details. Team members may take safety precautions more seriously if a corresponding HCS label for DMSO containers includes specific wording regarding the skin irritation that occurs after exposure.