What Does COSHH Stand for and What does it Mean?

What Does COSHH Stand For And What Does It Mean?

What is COSHH?

If you work in an industry in which you need to take care of your health and safety measures, you may have already heard the term COSHH. However, if you’ve been left in the cold wondering what COSHH actually stands for, or what any of these regulations mean for you or your business, we at Storage N Stuff are here to help answer any questions that you may have.

What Does COSHH Stand for in Health and Safety?

COSHH was introduced to control the exposure limits of a business’ employees to hazardous substances. What does the acronym COSHH stand for? COSHH stands for ‘Control Of Substances Hazardous to Health regulations.’ COSHH regulations are a set of rules put in place to protect workers from ill health when they are working with specific substances and materials. A breach of COSHH regulations by your employer or your employee is a crime, punishable by an unlimited fine.

COSHH is the law that makes it essential for employers to control exposure to hazardous substances that are detrimental to employee health. Employers can prevent or reduce their workers’ exposure to hazardous substances by:

  • Finding out what the health hazards are
  • Deciding how to prevent harm to health with a risk assessment
  • Providing control measures to reduce harm to health
  • Making sure they are used
  • Keeping all control measures in good working order
  • Providing information, instruction and training for employees and others
  • Providing monitoring and health surveillance in appropriate cases
  • Planning for emergencies

Depending on the type of business you own, or work in, you may use or create potentially harmful substances; which could cause harm to employees, contractors and other people. So if you’re wondering What does COSHH stand for in construction, hairdressing, or cleaning, Sometimes, these dangerous substances are easily recognised as harmful. Common substances such as paint, bleach or dust from natural materials are also harmful.

A COSHH assessment concentrates on the hazards and risks from substances in a workplace and asks questions such as:

  • Where is there potential for exposure to substances that might be hazardous to health?
  • In what way are the substances harmful to health?
  • What jobs or tasks lead to exposure?
  • Are there any areas of concern?

The COSHH regulations have been in place for more than 25 years, but the most recent iteration from 2002 was re-enacted with amendments of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Work Regulations 1999.

What Does COSHH Cover?

Hazardous substances that are covered by COSHH can take many forms, below is a handy guide of what form of dangerous substance may need to look out for:

  • Chemicals
  • Products containing chemicals, such as cleaning chemicals or cleaning products
  • Fumes
  • Dusts
  • Vapours
  • Mists
  • Nanotechnology
  • Gases and asphyxiating gases and
  • Biological agents or germs. If the packaging has any of the hazard symbols then it is classed as a hazardous substance
  • Germs that cause diseases such as leptospirosis or legionnaires disease and germs used in laboratories.

COSHH Does Not Cover

  • Lead
  • Asbestos
  • Radioactive Substances

Because these have their own specific regulations.

What are the COSHH Symbols and Their Meanings?

There are nine primary hazard symbols relating to COSHH, three of them are self-explanatory: 

  • Explosive – stylised by an object exploding, 
  • Flammable – stylised by a flame, 
  • Compressed gas – stylised by a gas canister. 

Below, we’ve provided a helpful guide to further explain the remaining six, and what symbols to look out for:

  • Dangerous to the environment, stylised by a dead fish and tree:
    Chemicals that may present an immediate, or delayed, danger to aspects of the environment; such as wildlife, plant life, people, weather systems.  
  • Toxic, stylised by a skull and crossbones:
    Chemicals that at low levels cause damage to health. When the sign includes a T+ in the top left-hand corner, it means chemicals that can cause damage to health at very low levels.  
  • Oxidising, stylised by a circle covered in flames:
    Chemicals and preparations that react exothermically with other chemicals – often resulting in combustion. Common oxidizing agents are oxygen, hydrogen peroxide and the halogens.  
  • Corrosive, stylised by liquid pouring out of a tube onto a hand and surface:
    Substances that can damage or destroy other substances with which it comes into contact by means of a chemical reaction. These can exist as any state of matter, including liquids, solids, gases, mists and vapours.  
  • Long term health hazards, stylised by a white spark working through a human silhouette:
    This sign indicates the presence of a cancer-causing, carcinogenic, agent or substance with respiratory, reproductive or organ toxicity that causes damage over time, a chronic, or long-term, health hazard.  
  • Caution, stylised by an exclamation point – Caution relates to slightly less hazardous substances that may not pose an immediate or severe threat to health but should be handled carefully within the workplace.

The HSE has further information on what the law requires and advice on completing COSHH risk assessments.

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