Risk Assessment and Communication in Pharmaceuticals: Recognizing the Differences in Occupational Health and Medication Safety

Pharmaceuticals are the most common medical interven-tion. Ensuring workers and members of the public get the most benefits from advances in modern medicine is a criti cal component of improving the health care system. Pharmaceuticals bring healing to patients but increased risk of illness have been reported among workers manufacturing, handling and administering pharmaceutical products with inadequate attention to personal safety. Their potential for both helping and harming human health can be predicted based on health-based risk assessment. This assessment process for occupation and medication (product/patient) safety is similar yet provides different sets of information. Understanding the hazards and risks of pharmaceuticals and conveying appropriate safety messages to workers is essential. Workplace training in differentiating the use of safety data sheets (SDS) from drug product information (DPI) sheets, effectively communicating the difference between safe work practices (SWP) and good manufacturing, laboratory and clinical practice (GMP, GLP and GCP) quality guidelines will direct workers’ attention to the essential chemical hazard and risk information. The increase in knowledge on the proper use of SDS and SWP will encour-age appropriate self-protective behavior in reducing chemical exposure amongst workers and improve safety at work.