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Dust entry

Pharmaceutical pill dust

Airborne dust generated while handling, dispensing, packaging, or processing pharmaceutical tablets and powders.

Airborne form

dust

The form describes what is suspended in air at the point of exposure. A material can produce more than one form, such as dust during handling and fume during heating.

Health effects

respiratory irritationeye irritationskin irritationdermatitis

Evidence

NIOSH found that work activities in an outpatient pharmacy generated dust exposing employees to pharmaceutical ingredients, including lactose and active pharmaceutical ingredients in airborne dust.

Source: pdf ↗ · saved source
page 2 · Highlights of this Evaluation · 2
Work activities in the outpatient pharmacy generated dusts that exposed employees to pharmaceutical ingredients. We found lactose and active pharmaceutical ingredients in the dust in the air.

A NIOSH pharmaceutical-manufacturing HHE found that hand-scooping powder during tablet pressing generated the highest measured dust levels; it notes that dust containing active pharmaceutical ingredients can cause allergic reactions and upper-respiratory irritation.

Source: pdf ↗ · saved source
page 2 · Our Key Findings; Our Recommendations · 1–2
During some work activities, respirable dust levels, which are the levels of dust the lungs breathe in, could be very high for short periods of time. During tablet pressing, hand-scooping powder generated the highest dust levels compared with other tasks we measured. ... Sometimes employees used powder that contained active pharmaceutical ingredients. Exposure to this dust can cause health problems like allergic reactions and upper respiratory irritation.

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