In addition to the issues for which Lilly has set goals, there are other emerging topics that our stakeholders seek to better understand.
Pharmaceutical Products in the Environment
Lilly is committed to understanding the potential effects of products in the environment as well as in humans. Using improved testing technologies, scientists at various locations around the world have detected low levels of certain drug products in water. Reported concentrations are extremely low, ranging from parts per trillion to parts per billion.
As a precautionary measure, pharmaceutical products are subjected to environmental and other testing as part of registration protocols, before the product is marketed. We are continuing to examine the science to determine what the potential impacts of pharmaceuticals in the environment might be. Although Lilly is not aware of data showing pharmacological effects, we recognize that additional testing may be required. We are working with federal agencies and others in the pharmaceutical and scientific community to responsibly answer these questions.
Manufacturing Process Safety
We continually address process safety risk reduction in our hazardous bulk manufacturing operations. The discipline of process safety management has been applied to help prevent chemical hazards from escalating to actual loss events through engineering analysis, active management review, protective design, and monitoring metrics. During 2006, we improved existing tools and added a new analysis method to review our most significant potential scenarios and the reliability of protective safeguards.
Control of Chemical Exposures
Another aspect of managing health and safety is controlling our employees’ exposure to potentially hazardous chemicals in the workplace. Lilly industrial hygiene experts assess potential exposures and put measures in place to prevent them. They have done industry-leading work in modeling potential exposures at very low levels and using advanced monitoring technology to measure contaminant levels.
