Pharmaceuticals

The pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cosmetics industry generates a variety of products that can become a nuisance dust during production and packaging. 

Depending on the application, there may be concern with cross contamination of other products, cGMP issues, as well as occupational exposure limits to limit plant worker exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (API’s).

Special Considerations

Many pharmaceutical dusts are combustible and those operations generating or handling pharmaceutical dusts can require special mitigation efforts to minimize fire and explosion risks. Standards such as NFPA 654 can provide guidance for those who generate and handle these types of dusts.

Pharmaceutical dusts may also have identified adverse health impacts, and special mitigation strategies may be required to limit occupational exposure below levels OSHA or other health organizations have established for these materials.

Equipment Options

• Stainless steel contact surfaces
• Wash down/clean out designs
• FDA approved paint

Collector Design Considerations

• The design and construction of dust collectors, containment devices may need to address a range of potential issues; including configuration decisions to minimize material build-up, seam sealing of collectors and ducts, duct attachment and sealing techniques, and potential use of secondary monitoring filter such as HEPA filters.
  
  
• In some instances, devices with special seals are required to reduce or eliminate the discharge of dust from the dust collector when transferring material to storage containers for disposal. (See customized 15.2 m / 50 ft liner system video below.)

• In other situations, custom sealed filter change-out procedures may become necessary during filter servicing to reduce exposure when the dust in the collector has potentially adverse health impacts. (See custom sealed filter change video on the "Videos" section.)

Pharmaceutical Processes That May Generate Dust