COSHH - Control of Substances Hazardous to Health

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COSHH stands for the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1999.

COSHH is all about gathering information on the products and work practices associated with their use. The "substances hazardous to health" are virtually all substances including preparations, capable of causing adverse health effects or disease arising from work activities.

To ensure adequate health and safety practices, any risk to the health of the employees must be identified and provision made to either eradicate the risk or at least control it. Manufacturers of all the products must carry out effective COSHH assessment, which should be made available, for inspection or can be revised any time.

The COSHH, are the most important piece of UK legislation on chemical hazards at work. The law was enacted in 1988, and came into force in October 1989. The Regulations were amended in 1994 and again in 1999. The new set of Regulations with certain new amendments to the existing law came into existence in March 1999.

Control of substances hazardous to health applies to virtually all UK workplaces, including offshore oil and gas installations. The main legal duties of employers under this Act are contained in Regulations 6-12, which cover risk assessment, prevention or control of exposure, use and maintenance of controls, observing exposure, health inspection, and provision of information and training.

COSHH provides a legal framework to protect people against health risks and sets out the essential precautionary procedures that employers and employees must take.

There are five identifiable categories, defined by COSHH:

· Substances, which are very toxic, toxic, harmful, corrosive or irritant
· Substances with a MEL (maximum exposure limit) or an approved (OEL) occupational exposure limit
· Biological agents, cell cultures or human endoparasites capable of causing infection, allergy, toxicity or   other health hazard
· Any dust in a substantial concentration in air
· Any other substance, which creates a health hazard comparable to those, listed above

There are mandatory requirements placed upon employers. COSHH Assessments must be carried out by a competent person who can make a value judgment on the potential effect of these substances and the amount to which employees may be exposed.

Health & SafetySmart enables you to carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks created by exposure to any substance. The other benefits and services offered by Health & SafetySmart include: The Health & SafetySmart has been designed to make assessing chemical risk in the workplace quick, easy and accurate. It reduces paperwork by allowing you to organise information necessary for effective chemical risk management as per the guidelines set by COSHH.

The Heath and safety smart provides a standardised approach to recording details of hazardous chemicals - easily build material safety datasheets for hazardous chemical substances in your workplace as you go. Using the prescribed guidelines, a systematic assessment of those chemicals is performed. The comprehensive plans thus developed are completely at par with COSHH.

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