When people think about COSHH, they often think of chemicals stored in bottles or containers displaying hazard symbols. While these products can certainly fall under COSHH, the regulations cover a much wider range of substances that may be hazardous to health.
Under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH), employers need to consider substances that could cause harm through workplace exposure. These can include chemicals, dusts, fumes, vapours, mists, gases and biological agents.
Importantly, hazardous substances may also be generated by the work itself. This means emp...
Responsibility for COSHH in the workplace ultimately sits with the employer.
Under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH), employers have legal duties to assess risks from substances hazardous to health and ensure exposure is prevented or adequately controlled.
However, effective COSHH management is rarely the responsibility of one person. Managers, supervisors, health and safety personnel, employees and external specialists may all have a role to play.
Employers need to understand which hazardous substances are p...
A COSHH assessment should identify how substances hazardous to health could cause harm in the workplace and establish the measures needed to prevent or adequately control exposure.
It should consider more than the hazardous properties of a chemical. A suitable assessment looks at the substance, the task, who could be exposed, how exposure could occur and whether existing controls are effective.
A Safety Data Sheet (SDS) can provide important hazard information, but it is not a COSHH assessment. The assessment needs to apply that information to the way the substance is actually used or generate...