Particulate contamination in New Zealand intravenous solutions

The New Zealand Department of Health sampled intravenous solutions readily available, February to April 1978, for testing at DSIR. Four out of a sample of 12 production batches taken from five manufacturers failed to comply with the requirements for particulate matter of the British Pharmacopoeia 1973 and of the New Zealand Transfusion Advisory Committee. A further 15 batches were rejected when retesting products of two manufacturing units where problems with particulate contamination had been descovered. Subsequently, action has been taken to deal with these problems.