Health Risk Assessment

Monday, April 5, 2010

Who Will Carry Out Your CoSHH Risk Assessment?

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Once it has been determined that hazardous substances are present in the workplace, the first step to carrying out a CoSHH risk assessment is to decide who will carry out the assessment.

As an employer, it is your legal duty to comply with CoSHH Regulations and to control any dangerous chemicals at work so as not to harm your employees.

The smaller your business is, and the fewer risks there are, the less likely it is that many people will need to be closely involved in the whole process.

This is due to the fact that there is not as much need for technical expertise in occupational hygiene and therefore the CoSHH assessment procedure is not as rigorous. It is important to remember, that however small your company may be, serious or difficult risks may still occur.

Larger organisations will require more people to be involved in the CoSHH assessment process, as issues become more complex and varied. This is because more work is required and also the variety of situations will require various different skills and CoSHH knowledge.

As the numbers involved in the CoSHH assessment increase, so does the need for CoSHH management of their work. Whoever is responsible for the CoSHH assessment process should clearly identify individual responsibilities.

If there are a great number of CoSHH assessments, employers find that using a combination of a central coordinating CoSHH body and teams which report back to it with observations and recommendations, works very successfully.

The central body can be responsible for selecting capable team members, giving CoSHH guidance to ensure that teams are looking for the right things, monitoring recommendations and providing a source of occupational hygiene expertise.

It is important to remember that employers need to involve their employees in the CoSHH assessment process. Employers need to look to their employees as to how they do their job as this information will be crucial in completing an accurate CoSHH assessment.

Employee participation can be either on an individual or representative basis, and usually with larger companies, representatives are more appropriate.

As an employer with recognised trade union safety representatives, it is crucial that they are notified of any situations relating to the health of employees and so they can check the effectiveness of such measures. Including consultation on matters covered by CoSHH.

Employees that are not covered by such health and safety representatives must be notified through elected representatives of employee safety according to the Health and Safety Regulations 1996.

Dale Allen develops systems and online software to help you succeed in HSE CoSHH compliance. Find out more about how to effectively manage and produce a compliant HSE CoSHH assessment free with the UK's leading CoSHH compliance authority, COSHH365.

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