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Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH)

Every year, thousands of workers suffer ill health and disease due to exposure to hazardous substances and ill health caused by substances including chemicals and dusts cause around 10,000 deaths per year. Conditions include lung disease, occupational asthma, asbestosis, black lung and silicosis as well as various cancers such as mesothelioma and stomach, lung and skin cancer and skin disease such as dermatitis or Urticaria. The annual cost to industry, society and individuals is many millions of pounds in replacing the trained worker, in disability allowances and medicines, and loss of jobs.

Exposure to hazardous substances, including chemicals and dusts, can cause pain, suffering, ill health and sometimes death. Consequently, exposure to these agents needs to be effectively controlled. Under Health and Safety law, employers must undertake a suitable and sufficient assessment of workplace risks and take steps to reduce those risks which include taking effective measures to control exposure to hazardous substances which in turn may also improve production processes and/or reduce waste.

Legal Requirements

There are a number of pieces of legislation that apply to the control of substances hazardous to health in the workplace:

The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002 (as amended) is the main piece of legislation dealing with occupational exposure to chemicals, including those which have or may have the potential to cause cancer (carcinogens), those which have mutagenic effects (can cause heritable genetic defects) and teratogens (non-hereditary congenital malformations).

REACH is a European Community Regulation on chemicals and their safe use (EC 1907/2006). It deals with the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical substances and came into force on 1 June 2007.

United Nations Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) The objective of this system is to have one chemical, one label - worldwide.

The European Regulation on Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures Regulation 2008 was published in the European Union’s Official Journal on 31 December 2008 and entered into effect on 20 January 2009, subject to a lengthy transitional period.

The Chemicals (Hazard Information and Packaging for Supply) Regulations 2009 (CHIP4) came into force on 6 April 2009.

Barbour Resources

We offer a range of resources to help you create policy and communicate with the workforce, including regularly reviewed documents which provide technical guidance and policy and risk assessment assistance.

COSHH Assessment Form

Posted: July - 2010
This Barbour Form is in a ready to use format and will assist anyone that needs to undertake a COSHH risk assessment.
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You can find out more about the COSHH Regulations by signing up for the Free Demonstration of our service. This gives you unrestricted access to all the relevant information on COSHH and risk assessments, plus all the other health and safety issues your organisation should be aware of.