COSHH stands for Control of Substances Hazardous to Health. The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 stop an employer carrying out work liable to expose employees to a hazardous substance unless they have first made a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risk and then implemented the steps it identified. The order matters: assess, then control, then work. Not work, then assess when somebody asks.
What counts as a substance hazardous to health
More than the obvious bottles. Chemicals and products containing them, fumes, dusts, vapours, mists, gases and asphyxiating gases, biological agents where the work involves them, and any dust in substantial concentration. Flour in a bakery, wood dust in a joinery shop, silica in cut stone, and used engine oil all fall in. Lead, asbestos and radioactive substances have their own regulations instead.
What regulation 6 requires the assessment to consider
The hazardous properties of the substance. The health information the supplier provides, including the safety data sheet. The level, type and duration of exposure. The circumstances of the work, including the amount involved. Activities such as maintenance where exposure could be unusually high. Any relevant occupational exposure limit. And the effect of the control measures already taken or planned.
The exposure limit, and what it is not
A workplace exposure limit is a concentration in air, averaged over a reference period, that must not be exceeded. It is a legal ceiling and not a safety line: for many substances there is no level at which harm stops, and the duty is to reduce exposure so far as is reasonably practicable regardless. HSE publishes the list in EH40, and a substance having no listed limit does not put it outside COSHH.
Who the duty covers
The employer, towards employees, and under regulation 3 towards other people at work who might be affected. The self-employed are covered in respect of their own exposure where the work is of a prescribed description, so the answer to whether COSHH applies to a self-employed person is that it usually does, and that assuming otherwise is a common and expensive error.
Employer and employee responsibilities
The employer assesses, prevents exposure where reasonably practicable or otherwise adequately controls it, maintains and examines the controls, provides information, instruction and training, and where required arranges monitoring and health surveillance. The employee uses the controls provided, reports defects, and takes part in health surveillance. Neither list works without the other.
Questions people ask about what does coshh stand for
What does COSHH stand for?
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health. The regulations are the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002.
Does COSHH apply to self-employed individuals?
Generally yes. The regulations apply the assessment and control duties to a self-employed person in respect of their own exposure where the work is of a prescribed description, and to anyone else affected by their work.
What substances does COSHH include?
Chemicals and products containing them, fumes, dusts, vapours, mists, gases, biological agents at work and dust in substantial concentrations. Asbestos, lead and radioactive substances are excluded because they have their own regulations.
Is petrol covered by COSHH?
Yes, and it also engages DSEAR because it is a flammable dangerous substance. A workplace storing or decanting petrol usually needs both assessments, which cover different harms.