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Safety Solutions for You
Our technical and sales teams are happy to help you find the right PPE solutions for your company in the ever-changing environment of pharmaceutical manufacturing. Please contact us for on-site product demos, hazard assessments and product application and technical data requests.
Top Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Processes and Tasks
Our PPE solutions and expertise help you, the Health & Safety Managers and Industrial Hygienists in the Pharmaceutical industry, protect your workers and your product from operational workplace hazards.
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Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) ManufacturingAPIs, the primary, biologically active ingredients of a drug, are manufactured from raw materials through both chemical and physical means, during which your workers are exposed to a series of high-risk occupational hazards. Physical: Noise, slips, trips and falls (high-gloss floors), mechanical hazards, pressurised equipment
- Chemical: APIs in particulates and liquids, solvents, gases and vapours, O2 deficiency, ATEX, Ex atmosphere/flammable
- Radiation: API production may involve use of hot water, steam and high temperatures and humidity
- Biological: Dust, flying particles and liquid chemical splash, hazardous gases and vapours and micro-organisms
- Ergonomic: Musculoskeletal, manual handling and repetitive strain
- Horizontal applications: explosive atmospheres, working at height and confined spaces during cleaning, maintenance and repair
Some highly potent APIs have very low Workplace Exposure Limits (WELs), and personal protective equipment forms an essential part of your risk assessment to keep your workers safe.
Our team are happy to assist you with the risk assessment, simply get in touch with us to make an appointment
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Formulation and PackagingDuring formulation, the procedure in which the drug takes its final form, as well as during it being packaged for sale, your workers are presented with a complex system of hazards that requires them to be protected by PPE.
- Physical: Noise, slips, trips and falls (high-gloss floors), mechanical hazards, extreme temperature and humidity, pressurised equipment
- Chemical: APIs in particulates and liquids, solvents, gases and vapours, O2 deficiency, ATEX, Ex atmosphere/flammable
- Radiation: No specific environmental hazards, however be aware of heat stress due to PPE
- Biological: Infectious micro-organism Ergonomic: Musculoskeletal, manual handling
- Horizontal applications: explosive atmospheres, working at height and confined spaces during cleaning maintenance and repair
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Maintenance and CleaningOngoing maintenance activities including decontamination or cleaning of cleanrooms or production suites can often involve challenging cleaning agents such as peracetic acid and hydrogen peroxide. PPE is crucial to keep your workers safe.
Hazards:
- Physical: Noise, slips, trips and falls (high-gloss floors), mechanical hazards, pressurised equipment. Potential for explosive and flammable atmospheres
- Chemical: APIs in particulates and liquids, solvents, gases and vapours, O2 deficiency,
- Radiation: Extreme temperatures and humidity may be present inside production reactor vessels
- Biological: Dust, flying particles and liquid chemical splash irritant gases and vapours and micro-organism
- Ergonomic: Musculoskeletal, Manual handling
- Horizontal applications: working at height and in confined spaces during cleaning, maintenance and repair
Our whitepaper “3M Respiratory Protection for Hydrogen Peroxide, Peracetic Acid and Acetic Acid" gives you an insightful overview over the available filter cartridge options suitable for protection against those chemicals and thus helps you find the right solutions for you.
Learn more about Confined Spaces solutions: How to work in a confined space | 3M United Kingdom
Our Sales and Technical teams are happy to answer to assist you with the selection. Contact us.
Confined Spaces. Get in easily. Get out safely.
From potentially toxic atmospheres, to physically hazardous conditions such as extreme temperatures, unstable materials, or the potential for falls, confined spaces often present unseen challenges.
Common Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Hazards
Personal protective equipment solutions for various occupational hazards found within the pharmaceutical industry
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Airborne HazardsAirborne hazards are common in pharmaceutical production, especially when it comes to API production. Most of the processes are likely to generate dust or /and gases & vapours. Identifying the hazards and selection of the appropriate respiratory protective equipment are key determining factors for a safe working environment.
Go to Respiratory Protection Center: achieving respiratory safety goals | 3M United Kingdom
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Explosive AtmospheresExplosive atmospheres in the workplace can be caused by flammable gases, mists or vapours or by combustible dusts.
Explosions can cause loss of life and serious injuries as well as significant damage.
Make sure your Personal Protection Equipment is designed for workplace environments with a potential risk of fire or explosion.Discover the Intrinsically Safe 3M™ Versaflo™ TR-802E powered air respirator.
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Working at HeightPharmaceutical manufacturing facilities can present a number of areas where workers may need to be at height. Regardless of distance, all work at height has the potential to cause serious or fatal injuries to workers should a fall or drop of objects occur. 3M Fall Protection offers the equipment, training, knowledge and expertise to help give pharmaceutical workers confidence to perform their work safely and efficiently.
More information on Fall Protection
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Skin ExposureFor most pharma production processes, protecting workers from hazardous particles, liquid splashes & sprays is essential. Avoiding contamination of the substances within the production process is also very important. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is used to create a barrier between people and products. In the pharmaceutical industry, often colorless and invisible dangerous substances can affect workers. Likewise human skin, by carrying germs and bacteria can affect the API Process.
Find the right Coverall for your needs: 3M Coveralls | 3M UK
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Eye InjuriesLiquid splash, dust and flying particles can result in severe injuries that could cause permanent damage to the eyes. Helping to find the right protection in terms of hazards and fit is often a challenge.
Our eyewear selector is here to help you: Eyewear Product Selector | 3M United Kingdom
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Noise ExposureNoise in the workplace is a complex hazard. Harmful noises can endanger your workers' hearing or hinder their ability to communicate safely from a distance whilst working. In 2016, harmful noise was officially recognised as an irreversible health hazard within the revised PPE directive 89/686/EEC. This puts hearing protection in the same level of high risk categorization as respiratory protection and fall protection.
Please consult our Harmful Noise factsheet for more information
Helpful Resources
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Certificates
Look no further! Here you can find all the CE certificates and declarations of conformity you need, sorted by product category:
Suggested PPE products for pharmaceutical manufacturing
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This comfortable, easy-to-use powered air respirator gives your people a high level of protection and helps to minimise the risk of fire or explosion. The Versaflo TR800 platform is intrinsically safe and approved to zone 0 requirements, suitable for potentially explosive atmospheres. When combined with a 3M approved headtop, it forms a battery powered system for respiratory protection against particles, nuisance odours, gases and vapours.
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3M™ Aura™ 9300+ Series Disposable Respirators are the result of 3M’s continuous drive to improve comfort. The Ingenious 3-panel design fits a wide range of face shapes and sizes, also helps accommodate greater facial movement during speech making the respirator so much more comfortable to wear.
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When handling active substances, it is essential to reliably protect the employee's respiratory tract.
It is almost as important to ensure that the substances/active ingredients are not contaminated - e.g. by exhaled air.
With the 3M Aura respirator Aura 1883+ we have the optimum solution that fulfills both of these requirements. The two-way breathing mask offers double approval & protection through the covered exhalation valve according to EN14683:2005: *Tested mouthguard type 2R according to EN14683:2005 - effect from inside to outside
* Tested respiratory protection according to EN149:2001 FFP3 - protection from the outside to the inside -
Designed with smart and intuitive features 3M™ Secure Click™ Half Mask Reusable Respirator HF-800 Series is simple, comfortable and reliable. The HF-800 helps protect against particulates and a wide variety of gases and vapours when used with approved 3M™ Secure Click™ cartridges and filters. Two dual flow cartridges on each respirator combine to create four airflow paths for easier breathing. Available in three sizes, our respirators come with an optional speaking diaphragm to help provide easier communication while you work.
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3M™ Protective Coverall 4530 has a specialist material treatment which offers fabric flame spread resistance to allow the garment to be worn over an Index 2/3 FR garment, enhancing the chemical splash and hazardous dust protection and extending the life cycle through reduced laundering. Certified to Cat III hazardous dust and splash type 5/6 protection and Antistatic EN 1149.
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3M™ GoggleGear™ Safety Goggles 2890 Series are high-wrap safety goggles providing an excellent field of vision. They are available with a superior anti-scratch and anti-fog coatings for increased durability and vision in hot or humid conditions. Our goggles feature a modern, slim design and a wide, nylon elastic strap for easy adjustability to ensure a close and comfortable fit.
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3M™ Goggle Gear 501NSGAF Clear Scotchgard™ Anti-Fog Lens is suitable for autoclave applications with its adjustable neoprene strap. The modern, lightweight design with pivoting rachet ensures personal fit. 3M™ Scotchgard™ Anti-Fog Coating provides superior anti-fog and anti-scratch properties.
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3M™ DBI-SALA® Delta™ Comfort Rescue Harness is one of our most popular harnesses featuring comfortable padding, with an ergonomic fit and feel, lightweight buckles and high strength webbing. The water repellant and abrasion-resistant webbing can withstand the most severe demands, day in, day out. It has a no-tangle triangular pattern, which creates a frame that allows the harness to be easily donned by workers.
