Introduction:
This assignment is on how important health and safety is in a dangerous environment such as a scientific workplace
being a lab. The different rules and legislation they have to follow to make sure its safe and the different equipment
you must wear to keep yourself safe. Also, how the two departments in the selected organisation (Pfizer) are
following relevant health and safety legislation as well as describing the hazards present and how health and safety
is managed.
Main Activities of chosen Organization:
My chosen Organisation is Pfizer, an American multinational pharmaceutical corporation headquartered in New York
City was founded in 1849, based in New York City and was listed on New York Stock Exchange. It is one of the world's
largest pharmaceutical companies. Pfizer is most famous for developing erectile-dysfunction drug Viagra, aka the
"blue pill", US pharmaceutical firm Pfizer is one of the world's biggest companies.
Potential Hazards in each department selected:
The two departments I have chosen are ‘Medical Sciences Pharmaceutical Sciences Small Molecule Team’ and
‘Material Characterisation Team’ these different compartments have different potential hazards.
Medical Sciences Pharmaceutical Sciences Small Molecule Team: Creating a medicine involves lots of scientists,
working together across multiple sites, not only looking to discover new breakthrough compounds, but also coming
up with innovative ways to help patients take medicines in the most effective way possible. There are many potential
hazards that can occur in that sector the most common being:
Chemical hazards: Toxins, corrosives, flammables, and reactive.
Biological hazards: Microbes, animals, plants, and genetically modified agents.
Radiation hazards: Ionizing and nonionizing radiation.
Physical hazards: Slips, trips, falls, exposure to loud noises, vibrations, & unguarded machinery.
Ergonomic hazards: poor design of equipment, workstation design, manual handling, repetitive movement.
This team works with chemicals as they’re creating medicine so the hazards, they’re most likely to face is chemical
hazards such as flammable chemicals exploding or then inhaling toxic chemicals. To overcome this issue, they need
to do Risk assessment to make sure the people working in that laboratory are safe. Another hazard the Small
molecule team may have to overcome is physical hazards such as falling, slipping and unguarded machinery as they
are dealing with complex machinery. If any of these issues occur then they would need to report it to RIDDOR. If it’s
a physical injury they would report it under ‘I’ Which is ‘reporting of Injuries’ whilst if it’s a chemical injury they
would report it under ‘Dangerous.’
Material Characterisation Team: The job of the Particulates Team is to identify the materials and suggest where the
particles originated from, from which changes can be made to eradicate the problem. There are many potential
hazards that can occur in that sector the most common being:
Chemical hazards: Toxins, corrosives, flammables, and reactive.
Biological hazards: Microbes, animals, plants, and genetically modified agents.
Radiation hazards: Ionizing and nonionizing radiation.
Physical hazards: Slips, trips, falls, exposure to loud noises, vibrations, & unguarded machinery.
Ergonomic hazards: poor design of equipment, workstation design, manual handling, repetitive movement.
This team works with materials and where the particles originated from so the hazards, they’re most likely to face is
physical hazards such as Unguarded machinery, vibrations and loud noises. To overcome this issue, they need to do
make sure that the people working there are comfortable by receiving feedback from them. Another hazard the
Material Characterisation Team may have to overcome is ergonomic hazards such as poor design of equipment,
work station design and manual handling. If any of these issues occur then they would need to report it to RIDDOR. If
it’s a physical injury they would report it under ‘I’ Which is ‘reporting of Injuries’ whilst if it’s an ergonomic injury
they would report it under ‘Regulations.’