A quick guide to the COSHH regulations

What is COSHH?

Many substances used in everyday life and particularly in factories and other plant that can damage people's health. Typical problems that might be caused include: dermatitis; cancer; occupational asthma and reproductive toxicity. As a result, the COSHH regulations were brought into being to control such hazardous substances.

The following information comes from the Health & Safety Executive (see www.hse.gov.uk/hthdir/noframes/coshh for full details).

COSHH stands for the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1999. Using hazardous substances can put people's health at risk. COSHH requires employers to control exposures to hazardous substances to protect both employees and others who may be exposed from work activities.

What are hazardous substances?

Hazardous substances are anything that can harm your health when you work with them if they are not properly controlled, for example, by using adequate ventilation. They are found in nearly all work places such as factories, shops, mines, farms and offices. They can include any of the following:

• Substances used directly in work activities (eg glues, paints, cleaning agents)
• Substances generated during work activities (eg fumes from soldering and welding)
• Naturally occurring substances (eg grain dust, blood, bacteria)

For the vast majority of commercial chemicals, the presence (or not) of a warning label will indicate whether COSHH is relevant. For example, household washing up liquid doesn't have a warning label but bleach does - so COSHH applies to bleach but not washing up liquid when used at work.

Remember that asbestos and lead are covered by separate laws.

Following the seven steps to COSHH

Employers must....

Step 1:

Work out what hazardous substances are used in your work place and find out the risks from using these substances to people's health.

Step 2:

Decide what precautions are needed before starting work with hazardous substances.

Step 3:

Prevent people being exposed to hazardous substances, but where this is not reasonably practicable, control the exposure.

Step 4:

Make sure control measures are used and maintained properly and that safety procedures are followed.

Step 5:

If required, monitor exposure of employees to hazardous substances.

Step 6:

Carry out health surveillance where your assessment has shown that this is necessary or COSHH makes specific requirements.

Step 7:

Ensure that employees are properly informed, trained and supervised.

COSHH - Easy steps to control chemicals:

1. Why was COSHH Essentials developed?

COSHH Essentials was developed to help small businesses apply the COSHH regulations to their workplaces after a recent survey showed that many firms wanted help with COSHH in real life situations.

2. What is COSHH Essentials?

COSHH Essentials is a step by step process which helps you identify correct control methods for the products and tasks in your workplace.

Step 1 - Getting started:

Choose which task and chemical/product you are looking at first

Step 2 - Finding out about your products and tasks:

The step-by-step process helps you find out:

The health hazards from the product

How likely the product is to get into the air by looking at how much product is being used and the physical form of the product - such as dustiness (solids) or volatility (liquids).

Step 3 Find the control approach:

Using these facts, a checklist is used to select a control approach from:

• General ventilation
• Engineering control eg LEV (Local Exhaust Ventilation),
• Containment
• Specialist advice. This is needed for some special cases - such as respiratory sensitisers and carcinogens.

Step 4 Find the task specific control guidance sheets:

There are 60 control sheets covering common situations in factories. You will need to choose a sheet with the correct control approach that covers your (or a very similar) task. The sheets include advice on:

• The type of equipment needed
• Maintenance
• Training of workers
• Where to find further information.

Step 5 Implementation:

You will need to think carefully about how you will start to put the recommendations in place. For example:

Making sure controls are good enough for all the products used on a machine

Considering other risks such as safety or environmental hazards mentioned on safety data sheets

Considering other aspects of COSHH, for example, is health surveillance necessary?

Reviewing your assessment regularly.

3. Where do I find COSHH Essentials:

COSHH Essentials (ISBN 0-7176-2421-8) costs £25. It is available from HSE Books, or can be ordered from book shops.

4. Frequently asked questions about using COSHH Essentials:

1. What are R/risk phrases:

(Refer to HSE web page www.hse.gov.uk/hthdir/noframes/coshh

R phrases summarise the product's risks (both health and safety) - eg R21 harmful in contact with skin, and R10 flammable.

2. I can't find the R phrases on the SDS/I've found two sets of R phrases on the SDS:

Look under section 15 Regulatory Information and section 2 Composition.

Section 15 contains R phrases for the complete mixture (calculated from the chemicals present and the amount in the final mixture by applying labelling rules from an EC directive) and Section 2 contains information on the individual parts.

Section 15 is used for COSHH Essentials as it applies to the whole mixture, not the individual parts. For example, if a product contains mostly group A chemicals but has a small amount of one in group B, the final mixture may still belong to group A.

A very small amount of group B chemical present in the product may not need increased control measures. This is similar to the changes in control approach depending on the scale of use - small, medium or large.

If there is no information in section 15, or you are making the preparation yourself, you can use the R phrases for the individual components in section 2. But you need to think about any chemical reactions in the mixture which could make new components, and the overall all approach may be more precautionary (as explained above).

3. There are no R phrases for this product on the SDS:

Suppliers have a duty to classify hazardous products under the CHIP Regulations (either using official lists such as the Approved Supply List or by examining available toxicity data) and put this information in safety data sheets, supplied with their products. If there are no R-phrases in section 15 or section 2, the product should be placed in hazard group A. But if you are concerned about the product, contact your supplier to discuss the classification.

4. Why aren't the risk phrases on my safety data sheet in the table of risk phrases on page 11 of COSHH Essentials?

Some risk phrases are not included in the table on page 11 of the main guide. They are either related to other risks, for example, R 10 flammable or have been introduced too late to be included in the booklet. By using the other risk phrases present on the safety data sheets you will get the correct hazard group.

5. What do I do if the risk phrase is mentioned in more than one hazard band?

Make sure you are matching the complete phrase. Some R phrases occur by themselves or as part of other phrases. For example R23 can be found by itself (in group C) or with other R phrases such as R48/23 (in group D) and R23/24 (in group C).

If the substance was labelled:

R23 it would belong to group C

R23/24 it would belong to group C

R48/23 it would belong to group D

6. I haven't got a SDS or I think it might be out of date

Suppliers have a legal duty to supply a SDS with chemical products to workplace users. Contact your supplier for a copy.

7. How do I classify hazards arising from work activities?

Hazards such as solder fume or wood dust are not covered by CHIP and safety data sheets do not contain R phrases for hazards generated by work activity. However control solutions described in this guide will still work. Published guidance on many industries is available from HSE Books.

8. What do I do if the boiling point of the mixture isn't listed?

Use the lowest boiling point solvent instead (the most volatile solvent).

9. If I'm using several batches of a product, do I need to use the total amount per day or per operation?

Per batch - if the controls are OK while carrying out an operation, for example, spray painting an ornament then they will work every time you spray the ornament.

10. Is the Control Guidance Sheet the whole COSHH assessment?

The Control Guidance Sheet may not be the whole of the assessment. For example, records may be needed of who is allowed in restricted areas, and who has been trained to carry out certain operations safely.

11. What do I do if the room temperature is regularly above 20^oC?

There is a graph showing the effects of different temperatures on page 13 of COSHH Essentials. Use the graph at the appropriate temperature to decide how volatile the product is.

12. What about additive/synergistic effects?

Some chemicals can act together, increasing their health effect, for example, the labels on many medicines warn you not to drink alcohol while taking the medicine. These are called additive or synergistic effects.

Additive or synergistic effects will not be taken into account if you classify mixtures using the R phrases for the individual components. However, the R phrases in section 15 Regulatory Information contains R phrases for the overall mixture and additive / synergistic effects have been considered in developing the rules to classify mixtures.

13. Where do I get more technical information?

More technical information is in the Technical basis for COSHH Essentials: easy steps to control chemicals ISBN 0 7176 2434 X, available from HSE Books

14. Future developments:

HSE has now developed an electronic version of COSHH Essentials. This is available FREE on the Internet. The address is www.coshh-essentials.org.uk. The electronic version is even faster and simpler as users need only to input basic information and the system works out the correct control measures.

A related publication, COSHH Essentials for printers, was launched in October 2000. It gives specific advice to help printers use this process for commonly used products and machinery.

A project to extend the COSHH Essentials approach to provide advice on health, safety and environmental risks from chemicals is also underway. This will produce an interactive Internet product again designed for small firms. HSE is working closely with the Environment Agency which will be developing the environmental element of the new system.

Health & Safety Executive (HSE)

Web: www.hse.gov.uk