Posted By Adrian Watson
Paul,

There is no requirement to provide MSDS's, however there is still an over-riding duty to provide information under Sect 6 HSWA 74. Pharmaceutical companies generally produce TDS which contain much of the same info.

Regards Adrian

Posted By Scott d
Hi Paul,

There is no legislation to provide an msds to a patient, however, as a company we use medicines as a raw material at times. We will break them down and put them into different physical forms or doses, depending on a patients prescription. In our case we need to obtain msds's to ensure the safety of our production technicians and I rarely have any problem obtaining them.

Regards,

Scott

Posted By Paul Leadbetter
Gary

Are you paraphrasing CHIP because, as I said above, CHIP does not apply? As Adrian pointed out, section 6 of HASAWA applies but it is only a general duty to provide information on the risks.

The particular case that gave rise to my question is that a client, who is carrying out research, has an MSDS for a pharmaceutical compound (a powder) but they will be using it in hydrochloric acid solution. The MSDS refers to 'chemically resistant gloves' to protect against the powder but I am concerned that the same substance in solution may permeate through gloves made from an inappropriate material. No data appears to available on solutions of the substance even though it would always be administered in solution in a medical setting. In such a setting, no MSDS need be provided under CHIP but I would have thought it was a jolly good idea in case of accidental, non-medical, exposure.

Paul

Posted By Chris Packham
Paul

Knowing now more about the particular case as you have described it, I would ask a the following questions:

1. What is the concentration of the hydrochloric acid?
2. What is the concentration in the acid of your pharmaceutical product?
3. Does it dissolve completely in the acid or does it remain in suspension?

Without knowing the chemical formulation of the pharmaceutical product it is not possible to be absolutely specific about the type of glove. However, my initial feeling is that the concern will be primarily with the acid. For this a relatively thick natural rubber glove may be sufficient or, if highly concentrated acid with only a minimal powder content is involved, then a butyl rubber glove.

Hope this is of some help.

Regards
Chris

Posted By Paul Leadbetter
Christopher

As I tried to explain above, the MSDS provided relates to the powdered material but my client will be using the substance in solution. As Chris Packham has said, the main consideration may be the acid nature of the solution.

Paul