Am I CoSHH Compliant?

Published Date: 31st August 2010

Is your business compliant with CoSHH law? The law stipulates that employers are responsible for protecting the health of their workers by controlling substances that are hazardous to health.

As an employer it is your duty to follow certain procedures to ensure that your workers are not exposed to hazardous substances or at least their exposure to such substances is controlled.

A substance hazardous to health includes chemicals, fumes, dusts and gases. Also, if the packaging reflects any of the hazard symbols then they are also classed as being hazardous to health.

There are certain measures you should already have in place which will guarantee that you are CoSHH compliant:

Firstly, you should have already ascertained which substances are hazardous in your work place and discovered the health hazards associated with them.

Secondly, you should have performed a CoSHH assessment on each substance to decide what the necessary precautions are to prevent harm to health. You should have a library of safety data sheets / CoSHH sheets (preferably computerised) which will guide you in your risk assessment. Safety data sheets describe all the hazards associated with a substance and give information regarding the handling, storage and emergency action in case of an accident.

Thirdly, control measures should be in place if the CoSHH risk assessment has identified that certain substances are hazardous to health. This may mean that you have had to alter some working procedures to ensure that the hazardous substance is no longer generated.

The fourth stage is that you should be ensuring that control measures are being used. This will guarantee that you are following the law effectively.

Fifthly, you should be monitoring your control measures and making sure that they are in good working order. Any defects in the system should be detected and rectified.

You should also be providing information, instruction and training for your employees and others if they are impacted in any way by hazardous substances.

The seventh measure would be that you are providing monitoring and health surveillance where appropriate.

Finally, you should also have an emergency plan in place. Accidents and incidents may happen involving hazardous substances so a plan should be set up to account for such emergencies.

If you are self-employed and have employees then CoSHH regulations still apply to you. Even if you do not have any employees but take hazardous substances to other people's premises, then you must still be CoSHH compliant (except for the regulation regarding monitoring and heath surveillance).

If you are unsure if your company has an obligation to comply with the CoSHH regulations or you are unsure if any CoSHH hazards exist in your organisation, please call our free confidential H&S helpline or download our free CoSHH information pack. Please read 'What next?' below.

What next?