COSHH: The Control of Substances
Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002

COSHH stands for Control of Substances Hazardous to Health. The COSHH Regulations 2002 require employers to assess and control exposure to hazardous substances in the workplace so that workers are not harmed.

The regulations apply to almost every UK workplace because 'hazardous substances' is a broad category. It includes chemicals such as cleaning products and solvents, dusts such as those produced by sanding wood or cutting stone, fumes from welding, soldering, or cooking, biological agents such as bacteria and viruses, and asphyxiating gases. Even substances that seem harmless, such as printer toner or flour, can be hazardous at certain exposure levels.

If your employees come into contact with any substance that could harm their health, the COSHH Regulations apply to you.

The COSHH Regulations cover substances classified as hazardous under the CLP Regulation (Classification, Labelling and Packaging of substances and mixtures), substances that have a workplace exposure limit set by the HSE in EH40, biological agents (bacteria, viruses, fungi, other microorganisms), and any other substance that creates a comparable hazard to those listed above.

COSHH does not cover asbestos (regulated under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012), lead (regulated under the Control of Lead at Work Regulations 2002), ionising radiation, or substances hazardous only because they are flammable, explosive, or at extreme temperatures (these are covered by other regulations).

For practical workplace examples: cleaning chemicals used by facilities teams, solvents and adhesives in workshop environments, dust from construction, woodworking, or stoneworking activities, welding fumes, laboratory chemicals, paints and coatings, pesticides and biocides, and hairdressing products all fall within COSHH.

The COSHH Regulations place specific duties on employers.

Each duty is enforceable by the HSE or local authority. Failure to comply can result in improvement notices, prohibition notices, prosecution, and unlimited fines.

Safety data sheets are the starting point for any COSHH assessment. Under the CLP Regulation, suppliers must provide a safety data sheet for any hazardous substance they supply. The SDS contains 16 sections covering identification, hazards, composition, first aid measures, firefighting, accidental release, handling and storage, exposure controls, physical properties, stability, toxicology, ecology, disposal, transport, regulatory information, and other information.

For a COSHH assessment, the key sections are Section 2 (hazards identification), Section 8 (exposure controls and personal protection), and Section 11 (toxicological information). These sections tell you what the hazards are, what controls are needed, and what the health effects are.

Safety data sheets should be kept current, accessible to employees, and referenced in your COSHH assessments. Collecting and maintaining SDS is part of a functioning COSHH management system.

Some hazardous substances have workplace exposure limits set by the HSE and published in document EH40. A workplace exposure limit (WEL) is the maximum concentration of a substance that employees can be exposed to over a specified time period, usually an 8-hour time-weighted average or a 15-minute short-term exposure limit.

WELs exist for common workplace substances including ammonia, benzene, carbon monoxide, chromium, formaldehyde, hydrogen sulfide, isocyanates, lead compounds, and hundreds of others.

Where a WEL applies, your COSHH assessment must demonstrate that exposure is controlled below the limit. For some substances this requires air monitoring and health surveillance. Where no WEL is set, exposure must be controlled to as low as reasonably practicable.

Arinite delivers COSHH training at all three levels, on-site or online. Training is tailored to your actual substances, your actual processes, and your actual workplace. See our full health and safety training page for details.

Arinite's Chartered health and safety consultants deliver COSHH compliance support as a standalone service or as part of an ongoing outsourced health and safety package. The service includes initial COSHH gap analysis to establish your current compliance position, creation or review of your COSHH assessments for every hazardous substance in your workplace, development of your COSHH management system with procedures, controls, and documentation, delivery of COSHH training to employees at all required levels, arrangement of health surveillance and exposure monitoring where the regulations require it, and ongoing maintenance of COSHH records within Arinite's health and safety software platform.

For businesses on Done For You or Done With You packages, COSHH is included in the service. Your assessments stay current, your records stay in order, and your compliance is continuously maintained rather than scrambled together when an inspector arrives.