What Is COSHH? A Plain Assessment Guide

COSHH stands for the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health. If your work exposes anyone to hazardous substances, from cement dust and wood dust to solvents, adhesives and cleaning chemicals, the law requires you to assess the risk and control it. This guide explains what COSHH covers, when you need an assessment, and how to do one properly.

What COSHH covers

COSHH applies to substances that can harm health: chemicals and products carrying a hazard label, dust created by the work such as silica or wood dust, and fumes, vapours, mists, gases and biological agents. It does not cover asbestos, lead or radioactive material, which each have their own regulations. If a substance on your job has a hazard pictogram on the container, or your work throws up dust or fumes, it falls under COSHH.

When an assessment is required

The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 require an assessment whenever hazardous substances are used or created and could harm anyone. It is not optional and it is one of the documents an inspector will ask for. The searcher who has landed here almost always has to produce one, so the practical question is how.

How to read a safety data sheet

Your supplier must give you a safety data sheet for each hazardous product. It does most of the work for you. Section 2 lists the hazards, section 8 sets out the exposure controls and PPE, section 4 covers first aid, and section 7 covers safe handling and storage. Pull those straight into your assessment rather than starting from a blank page.

The assessment steps

1. Identify each substance and its hazards, using the label and the safety data sheet.
2. Decide who is exposed and how, whether by breathing it in, skin contact or swallowing.
3. Evaluate the risk, taking account of how much is used and how often.
4. Decide on controls in order: remove the substance, swap it for a safer one, use engineering controls such as ventilation or dust extraction, and only then rely on PPE.
5. Record the assessment, one sheet per product, and tell workers what it says.
6. Review it when the product, the task or the way you work changes.

A worked example

Take cutting concrete blocks with cement. The hazard is an irritant that can burn skin and eyes and a fine dust that harms the lungs. Those exposed are the operative cutting and anyone nearby. The controls are wet cutting to suppress dust, good ventilation, gloves, goggles and a mask rated for the dust, and washing off any cement promptly. First aid is to rinse thoroughly and seek medical advice for burns. On one recorded sheet, that is a proper COSHH assessment for the task.

Get the format ready made

Our COSHH assessment template gives you one clear sheet per substance covering the hazard, who is exposed, the controls, the PPE and the first aid, with space to link the safety data sheet. Fill it in from the sheet and you are done.