The U.S. Pharmacopeia's role in establishing public standards for aerosols

USP, a non-governmental and not-for-profit organization, establishes public standards for and information on articles used in the healing art through an elected body of Committee of Revision comprised of scientific experts in the fields of medicine, pharmacy, pharmaceutical chemistry, analytical chemistry, and others. To be consistent with latest developments in manufacturing and analytical technologies, USP has a continuous revision policy. Major revisions to the General Chapter on Aerosols officially adopted recently that include detailed descriptions of multi-stage cascade impactor apparatus, two different single-stage impaction devises used in particle size of determination, uniformity of assage units, minimum fill and other tests are discussed. Further revisions to the chapter on Aerosols under consideration such as test procedure for nebulizers, extractables and particulate matter are discussed.