Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (CoSHH)

We have been involved with CoSHH from its conception in 1988. Our director was involved in developing a system to implement the legislation with in an ICRF Research Laboratory in the Dept. of Pathology at Cambridge.

From our experience developed at the ICRF, Cambridge University, the Sanger Centre and small Biotech Companies around Cambridge we have extensive knowledge of how to implement CoSHH.

Still today after 25 year of legislation Companies struggle to assess the use of substances correctly.

The following are some of the issues we have found:

• Often the assessment is based on the substance hazard only and not the task activity
• Dust exposures are often missed
• Sometimes all the substances are assess even though there is only a low hazard
• Information from SDS is inconsistent
• SDS information does not cover very small quantities
• REACH is not considered

We can help undertake CoSHH assessments for you and look at how you manage your CoSHH assessments.

Under the legislation it is important to ensure your control procedures work. There are requirements for Occupational Health Provision for staff and Air Monitoring of the working environment.

We can provide advice on how to cover both of these requirements.