Exposure to hazardous substances and spill risk (Part 2)

In the last article we discussed the ways by which your employees could come into contact with a hazardous substance. In this article we will focus on risk assessment and what processes you can put into place to cope with a hazardous substance spill.

COSHH regulations state that every employer should assess the risk of using hazardous substances. When they know the risk, employers should then do what is necessary to control and prevent the risk.

When there is little chance of a harmful substance escaping or coming into contact with a person, the risk can be described as low, but when a substance leaks or is spilt, the risk will of course be higher because there is a greater likelihood of coming into contact with the substance. Because of this, different risk assessments need to be done to cope with different situations when using the substance.

As part of these risk assessments, you may find you have to install spill cleanup kits at various locations around your site. Or you may have to make fuel or chemical absorbents readily available to employees. You may also need to train employees in the best way to safely tackle spills, so the risk of them coming into contact with the substance is eliminated.

Employers that have five or more employees need to record the risk assessment and the steps needed to control the risk.