There are thousands of accidents every year involving hazardous substances. Hazardous substances can threaten short or long term health.
This blog is designed to raise awareness of the key points in the safe handling and use of hazardous substances that could harm you or those around you.
Although some products contain or create substances that are considered hazardous, using them safely and correctly can significantly reduce, if not completely remove, the associated hazards.
There is legislation in place, to help protect people in the workplace against risks from these hazardous substances.
This legislation is called the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH).
COSHH doesn't cover lead, asbestos, or radioactive substances because these have their own specific regulations.
Defining COSHH
So, materials or the substances are made up of various different chemicals and compounds. Each chemical compound has to be carefully considered in terms of storage. So, you wouldn’t want to have a combustible material next to a source of heat, for example.
Other examples of why we need to correctly store that is that if we had some chemical spillages from more than one chemical, the combined chemical concoction, the mixture of those materials could cause a release of gas, which would then be hazardous into the atmosphere.
The COSHH regulations are the legal frameworks in which a manufacturer, the user has to abide by to ensure the safety of hazardous materials.
So, the different types of hazardous materials that you will find are chemicals, products containing chemicals, fumes, dust, vapours, mists, nanotechnology, gases and asphyxiating gases, biological agents, germs, germs that cause diseases such as leptospirosis and germs used in laboratories.
We need to carefully consider how we store our chemicals, especially around the environment in which we live in. We don't want those chemicals or substances escaping into the environment which would cause harm to our plant life, aquatic life, animals and insects.
Under COSHH, all employers have a duty to identify the health hazards and assess the risks posed by hazardous substances in their workplace. Typically, this takes the form of a COSHH risk assessment which needs to consider the following steps.
Identify the Hazards
Identify which products contain hazardous substances, consider job roles and tasks where exposure could occur. Remember to consider harmful substances produced by work processes such as grinding, cutting or sweeping up, and consider how others may be exposed.
Decide Who Might be Harmed and How
Consider how workers and others may be exposed. Think about possible routes of entry, inhalation (breathed in), ingestion (swallowed), absorption (through broken or unbroken skin) injection (skin puncture).
Evaluate the Risks and Decide on Precautions
If you have five or more employees, you must record your assessment. The really important part is making a list of the precautions that need to be taken to control the risks to workers' health.
Regular Review
The risk assessment should be regularly reviewed to ensure that it is kept up to date to take into account any changes in your workplace.
Exposure Routes
One of the main aims of the COSHH regulations is to prevent or minimise exposure to hazardous substances.
There are three key exposure routes:
Exposure by absorption or puncture
Exposure by inhalation
Exposure by ingestion.
Regulating Exposure
Any contact with hazardous substances is potentially dangerous, it is safest to prevent exposure at the source or avoid it all together.
Avoid using the hazardous substance altogether by finding an alternative which will do the job just as well.
Change the process, such as using a brush instead of spraying to apply paint.
Substitute the hazardous substance for a safer product, for example using a milder cleaning product instead of an irritant or using a vacuum cleaner rather than a brush.
Use the substance in a safer form, such as in a liquid or solid form instead of powder form to minimise dust.
Personal Protective Equipment
Use of PPE:- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is one of the most common control measures used to prevent exposure but should only be used after all other risk control measures have been explored or to provide additional protection in the event of a control measure failure.
Supply of PPE:- If a risk assessment indicates that a worker requires PPE to carry out their activities, the employer must carry out a PPE suitability assessment and provide the PPE free of charge, regardless of type of employment. All PPE must contain UKCA marking. If you have been supplied with PPE which does not contain UKCA marking, you should report this to your employer.
PPE Responsibilities:- As a worker, you must use the PPE properly and look after the equipment by using it correctly, following training and instruction from your employer.
PPE Considerations:- If you must use any Personal Protective Equipment, it's important that it fits correctly, feels comfortable, is compatible with other forms of protection and offers the right level of protection.
See the attached for more information and the button below if you'd like to complete our COSHH e-Learning Course.
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