Posted By Heather Aston Richard In our case definitely the process approach. Substances can affect one another and you do not take this into account in the individual substance apparoach. Also we have a weighing prcess in our Mixing dept which involves several hundred substances - imagine doing an individual assessment for all that lot! We do assess each substance for toxicity and suitability of use when it is first introduced, but 1 assessment covers the process. That's just my way of doing it - I think everyone has to do what suits their workplace. Heather

Posted By Alias I guess I kind of disagree with some of what has been written here. If a COSHH assessmrnt is done correctly it would take account of the manner and environment in which it was used. You can't just use the MSDS, you need to consider who, what, when where and why and until you have done that it doesn't qualify as a proper COSHH assessment in my eyes. Those two methods you describe are actually only one method done correctly which involves both elements. I do think you can do a COSHH assessment in a risk assessment format as to me COSHH is a RA involving said named substances, nothing more, nothing less :)

Posted By Lumpy No question .... process based. Do one all encompassing assessemnt for the process covering Manual Handling, Activity, PPE, COSHH etc. Reason as follows: Consider the following task: Decanting 25 litre drum of Acid into a vat. If you do one process based assessemnt you can covey the controls to the individual who does the work in one easy to read assessment. However if you do individual assessemnts (COSHH, Manual Handling etc), the poor operator will need to refer to several assessments, all cross referencing each other. No wonder the HSE suggerst that 80-90% of accidents are due to unsafe acts, there may be a safe system but the poor operator can't see the wood for the trees.

Posted By MMoran The process, including the operator (pregnant, young person, etc) has got to be the main starting point. It may not be simple to do one all encompassing assessment. If you take a more complex task e.g. in a laboratory you may be performing an assay (experiment) that lasts a day, has thirty chemicals; uses radioisotopes; uses many pieces of equipment such as ultracentrifuges, ultra violet lights, hot plates; has lots of manual handling; use of computers oh and to make things difficult working with genetically modified organisms. I do not think that this would be an easy read. In addition the HSE require copies of class 2, 3 and 4 biological assessments for their files and also class 2, 3 and 4 GMO assessments for their files. If there is a risk assessment that leads on to further assessments that need to be done, or are done, this would be better in this scenario. There is no correct way and we have to evaluate the most suitable method of assessing. The main point is that they have to be suitable and sufficient. Michael