COSHH Regulations Updated
29 April 2005
From 6 April, 2005
The
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulation 2002 have
been
significantly
updated. There is now a new focus on good practice to help
employers prevent their employees' health being harmed by the
chemicals used in their workplace, and a change to the way limits
are set for exposure to chemicals in the workplace.
Employers' COSHH Duties
To comply with COSHH employers
currently need to follow these eight steps
Step 1 Assess the risks
Step 2 Decide
what precautions are needed
Step 3 Prevent or adequately control
exposure
Step 4 Ensure
that control measures are used and maintained
Step 5 Monitor
the exposure
Step 6 Carry out
appropriate health surveillance
Step 7 Prepare
plans and procedures to deal with accidents, incidents and
emergencies
Step 8 Ensure
employees are properly informed, trained and supervised
Workplace Exposure Limits
(WELs)
In addition the regulations have
now introduced a new, simpler occupational exposure limit system.
Maximum Exposure Limits (MELs) and Occupational Exposure Standards
(OESs) will be replaced with a single type of limit - the Workplace
Exposure Limit (WEL). All the MELs, and most of the OESs, are being
transferred into the new system as WELs and will retain their
previous numerical values.
A WEL is the maximum
concentration of an airborne substance, averaged over a reference
period, to which employees may be exposed by inhalation. This means
it is a figure that, at worst, should not be exceeded.
Adequate
Control
As of 6 April, 2005 adequate
control of exposure will not rely merely on numerical limits, but
will place greater emphasis on good control practice. COSHH now
requires employers to:
- apply the eight principles of good practice
for the control of substances hazardous to health (regardless of
whether a substance has an exposure limit);
- ensure that the WEL is not exceeded; and
- ensure that exposure to substances that can
cause occupational asthma; cancer; or damage to genes that can be
passed from one generation to another; is reduced as low as is
reasonably practicable.
Principles of good practice for the control of exposure
to substances hazardous to health
Employers already have a clear
responsibility to manage and minimise the risks from work
activities. They must develop suitable and sufficient control
measures and ways of maintaining them. They should:
- identify hazards and potentially significant
risks
- take action to prevent and control risks
- keep control measures under regular
review
To be effective in the long term,
control measures must be practical, workable and sustainable. The
principles of good control are now part of the COSHH Regulations -
they appear in
Schedule
2A, aligned with
Reg.
7(7). Employers who do not follow these principles will not be
properly protecting their employees.
They are to:
- Design and operate processes and activities to
minimise emission, release and spread of substances hazardous to
health
- Take into account all relevant routes of
exposure
- Control exposure by measures that are
proportionate to the health risk
- Choose the most effective and reliable control
options which minimise the escape and spread of substances
hazardous to health
- Where adequate control of exposure cannot be
achieved by other means, provide, in combination with other control
measures, suitable personal protective equipment
- Check and review regularly all elements of
control measures for their continuing effectiveness
- Inform and train all employees on the hazards
and risks from the substances with which they work and the use of
control measures developed to minimise the risks
- Ensure that the introduction of control
measures does not increase the overall risk to health and
safety
Guidance on applying the principles was also
published on 6 April to help employers. In the coming months case
studies illustrating good practice will be published on HSE's
COSHH
website.
Good practice advice on controlling chemicals
is available at HSE's
COSHH Essentials
website.
New versions of the
COSHH Approved Code of Practice: EH40 (the list of exposure
limits), and the
brief guide to COSHH leaflet are available
from the
HSE Books website, telephone 01787
881165, fax 01787 313995. A
brief guide (pdf,
80KB) is also available on the
HSE
website.
What should Unite reps be
doing?
- Ensure you are involved in the COSHH
assessment, so that no substance is used without having first been
fully assessed.
- Use your rights to health and safety
information to request and take copies of COSHH assessments and
records of monitoring, including the results of local exhaust
ventilation tests.
- Check that measures to first prevent and then
control exposure are introduced.
- Ensure that the employer provides information
and training in the risks and alternative means of working with
substances hazardous to health.
- Ask your employer whether there is a COSHH
Essentials control solution for the jobs you do. If there is, make
sure it is applied.
