Vysus environmental consultants support our clients in conducting COSHH assessments. A COSHH assessment concentrates on the hazards and risks from hazardous substances in your workplace. Health hazards are not limited to substances labelled as 'hazardous'. Some harmful substances can be produced by the process you use, for example:
- Wood dust from sanding
- Silica dust from tile cutting
- Fumes from welding
The assessment is conducted through a series of steps
Identifying the hazards
Identifying which substances are harmful by reading the product labels and safety data sheets (SDS).
Reviewing harmful substances produced by your processes, such as cutting or grinding, or to which workers may be otherwise exposed. Such as:
- Processes that emit dust, fume, vapour, mist or gas
- Skin contact with liquids, pastes and dusts
- Substances with workplace exposure limits (WELs) are hazardous to health
Assessing the risks
- Determining who might be harmed and how.
- How workers might be exposed (whether the substance can be breathed in, get onto or through the skin or can even be swallowed) and the effects of exposure by each of these routes
- How often people work with the substance and for how long
- Anyone else who could be exposed - do not forget maintenance workers, contractors and other visitors or members of the public who could be exposed
- What you're already doing to control the risks
- What further action you need to take to control the risks
- Who needs to carry out the action
- When the action is needed by
Controlling the risks
After conducting a risk assessment and identifying which harmful substances are present, and how workers can be harmed, methods to reduce exposure through an ALARP process are conducted.
- Elimination
- Changing the process to reduce risks
- Containment
- Systems of work
- Cleaning
- Personal protective equipment
- Information and training
- Record of findings
- Review of controls