COSHH Assessments Documents

COSHH stands for Control Of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations, and a COSHH assessment is a health and safety document specifically relating to a single substance. As an example, you couldn't write a single COSHH assessment for plaster. Instead, you would need to write one for multi-finish, one for bonding, one for browning etc.... That's a single health and safety document for each substance. Even if a substance that you use isn't hazardous to health, you must still create a COSHH assessment for it in order to know that it's not hazardous. The above symbols are the new labelling system which came into force on July 2015 and was implemented in all EU member states and is classed as a Globally Harmonised System (GHS) which is overseen by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).

As far as health and safety document go, a coshh assessment is quite specific in that there are set requirements that must be met. You need to include: The Substance / material or product, The suppliers / manufacturers address and phone number, any hazardous contents or ingredients, if there's a work exposure limit and if so what it's set at, where the product's used, how the product's used, the product hazard levels, the products state, include any caution symbols that the product displays or that are displayed on the products safety data sheet, include any PPE to be used in conjunction with the product and the way or place that it's been used, any health risks or hazards the product may have, first aid and emergency measures, spillage and environmental data, fire and fire-fighting details?

Each COSHH assessment tells people what the hazards of a substance are and what PPE to wear in order to reduce contact or exposure, but more than that, each document tells people what to do if things go wrong and how to dispose of the product. It has essential information for hospitals and first aiders and the same for professional firefighters and fire marshals. It tells us what fire extinguishing equipment to use, whether any toxic gasses are released on combustion and what breathing apparatus firefighters need to use and why. The reason this type of health and safety document is so comprehensive is that the product's been used. This sounds obvious but if using a set of ladders poses a risk, the risk can be eliminated by using a mobile tower. If however, you need to use cement and there's no alternative safer product then any hazards the product poses to health should be recorded and operatives made aware of them?