What Are COSHH Regulations? And Why Are They Needed?
COSHH is Control of Substances Hazardous to Health The best way to reduce the risk of costly chemical accidents threatening your business is to put in suitable control measures to stop them happening in the first place. In order to do this, chemical substances used must be understood and the risk they pose to the organisation must be assessed. This approach is well known and not only makes good business sense, but also is a requirement of specific legislation such as the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) regulations. Despite the notoriety of COSHH, in our experience at NCEC, we have found that many small-scale users of chemicals consider the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) provided by their supplier as being sufficient to satisfy their duties under COSHH. This of course completely misses the point of proper chemical risk management. It would seem that some organisations have developed a ‘box-ticking’ approach to COSHH that does not actually address or control the risk. HSE stat
