How Do You Control and Manage the Risk of Hazardous Substances in the Workplace

Working with hazardous substances is a dangerous business. It is one of the most fundamental requirements of business owners and managers that they take reasonable actions and implement vital controls to manage and reduce the risks associated with hazardous substances or dangerous chemicals.

This blog post will be a thorough guide for you as an employer and your staff members to be aware of dangerous substances at work, how to identify the danger, and minimize the risk of injury or health hazards while working or around them.

What is a Hazardous Substance?

A hazardous substance is any substance that has the potential to cause serious risks to an individuals’ health and their environment.

They can be toxic, corrosive, explosive, or chemically reactive substances.

The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) covers numerous substances that could be dangerous to health. These may include:

• Chemicals
• Fumes
• Dust
• Vapors
• Products containing chemicals
• Mists
• Biological agents (bacteria & viruses)
• Gases
• Fibers or other such substances

Some other types include lead, asbestos, or radioactive elements. However, it is worth noting here that these substances are not covered under COSHH regulations, regardless of that, they are equally dangerous.

These above-mentioned substances or any other material having the potential to produce harm to human health counts as hazardous substances.

Employers and business owners are legally required to prevent their worker’s or staff’s health from their dangers.

What are the Regulations?

To be more precise on hazardous substances legislation, Control of Substances Hazardous to Health or COSHH is the key regulation to prevent or limit exposure to hazardous substances.

The objective of COSHH is to prevent or adequately control exposure to hazardous substances.

Employers can do this by:

• Implementing control equipment
• Controlling procedures that involve employees’ working practices, employers’ supervision in the task, maintenance, examination, and testing of control measures to minimize the risk
• Worker’s behavior while undertaking work and following control measures

Making these changes while performing everyday tasks and reducing the number of employees nearby can help make improvements in controlling risk exposure.

Ways to Control & Manage the Risk

As part of undertaking work with hazardous substances, employers need to be fully aware of the potential risks to their worker’s health.

Regular risk assessments must be conducted to implement vital control measures.

The most effective yet simple way to identify the risk is to obtain a safety data sheet (SDS) to get vital information about the hazardous chemical.

Alongside this, there are other ways to control and manage the risk which is explained below:

Elimination

As per COSHH regulations, it is required that exposure to hazardous substances must be prevented to its maximum.

This can be done by eliminating the use of dangerous substances in the workplace.

The elimination process may involve changing the work processes to avoid the use or minimizing the use if cannot be completely eradicated.

Substitution

This step involves introducing an alternative substance that is less dangerous to conduct work with.

This is one of the effective ways to control, manage, and mitigate the health risks of these chemicals.

Change Process

This step includes the regular inspection and review of the workplace and processes to integrate a less risky method to control the hazard.

Reviewing the work practices regularly is the halfway point in resolving workplace issues.

Vital Controls (Engineering & Supervisory)

This step highlights the engineering and supervisory controls that need to be implemented to manage the risk.

For instance, engineering controls involve the design of systems and required equipment, while supervisory controls may include reduced time to exposure and a reduced number of people who might be exposed to the risk.

Personal Protective Equipment

Personal protective equipment or PPE is also an essential step when it comes to implementing control measures within the workplace.

Providing the right protective equipment to the workers or employees must be the top priority of employers in avoiding health risks.

The PPE provided for work must fit the user correctly, be suitable for work, and be comfortable to work competently without too much restriction of movement.

Vital Training & Guidance

Besides the above-mentioned control measures, adequate staff training is also a necessity to control, manage, and minimize the risk altogether.

Employers are required to arrange vital training sessions for their staff members which include COSHH training, hazardous substances in industry or healthcare training, PPE training, and more such relevant courses.

To Sum it Up

Health and safety risks are present in the workplace of every type and size. Regardless of best practices and control measures, the risk of injury or ill health may arise.

This requires employers to conduct regular on-site assessments to examine the risks and involve their staff in the process to control and mitigate the health risks.

It requires a mutual effort of everyone to ensure a safe a secure working environment altogether.

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