Introduction to Health and Safety at Work

Introduction to Health and Safety at Work
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workers at risk regularly wash their hands and wear pro-
tective disposable gloves.
14.7 
Requirements of the COSHH 
Regulations
When hazardous substances are considered for use (or in 
use) at a place of work, the COSHH Regulations impose 
certain duties on employers and require employees to 
cooperate with the employer by following any measures 
taken to fulfi l those duties. The principal requirements are 
as follows:
1. employers must undertake a suitable and suffi cient 
assessment of the health risks ocreated by work 
which is liable to expose their employees to sub-
stances hazardous to health and of the steps that 
need to be taken by employers to meet the require-
ments of these Regulations (Regulation 6)
2. employers must prevent, or where this is not rea-
sonably practicable, adequately control the expos-
ure of their employees to substances hazardous 
to health. Workplace exposure limits (WEL), which 
should not be exceeded, are specifi ed by the Health 
and Safety Executive for certain substances. As 
far as inhalation is concerned, control should be 
achieved by means other than personal protective 
equipment. If, however, respiratory equipment, for 
example, is used, then the equipment must conform 
to HSE standards (Regulation 7)
3. employers and employees must make proper use of 
any control measures provided (Regulation 8)
4. employers must maintain any installed control 
measures on a regular basis and keep suitable 
records (Regulation 9)
5. monitoring must be undertaken of any employee 
exposed to items listed in schedule 5 of the Regu-
lations or in any other case where monitoring is 
required for the maintenance of adequate control 
or the protection of employees. Records of this 
monitoring must be kept for at least 5 years, or 
40 years where employees can be identifi ed 
(Regulation 10)
6. health surveillance must be provided to any employ-
ees who are exposed to any substances listed in 
schedule 6. Records of such surveillance must 
be kept for at least 40 years after the last entry 
(Regulation 11)
7. employees who may be exposed to substances 
hazardous to their health must be given information, 
instruction and training suffi cient for them to know 
the health risks created by the exposure and the 
precautions which should be taken (Regulation 12).