Does anybody here integrate their COSHH assessments directly into the Task risk assessments as opposed to holding two risk assessments?

What has been your experiences? Any drawbacks?

They are two different risk assessments, albeit it may be for the same task. As such, I'm not sure how you could integrate them without compromising their usefulness?

Depends upon the intention(s) of your asessments - this forum has a natural divide between those who believe that assessments should be for everyone and those who see them solely as a management tool.

If you are in the everyone camp keep in mind that any document spanning more than a few pages switches off the average reader when its content becomes technical and complex

If you are in the tool camp so long as the main points find their way in to the employee instruction why not make a single all encompassing document after all every other hazard is generally included on a task RA (noise, nuisance dust, electricity, compressed air, HAV's, WAH etc.)

Unless you are trying to keep an external consultant / assessor happy with lots of expensive paperwork the only way it would be deemed unsatisfactory is in the court

A single document is IMHO more likely to receive adequate review in the event of any change of materials, machinery and methods than separate documents reliant on someone remembering to cross reference

BUT do make sure your management systems procedures reflect that you aren't using separate forms

It depends what you mean by risk assessment. The EU Safety and Health at Work Agency has a simple definition:

"A risk assessment is nothing more than a careful examination of what, in your work, could cause harm to people, so that you can weigh up whether you have taken enough precuations or should do more to prevent harm." - taken from 'Good Practice Information' provided by EU-OSHA, Sept. 2009

How you arrive at your risk assessment may be complex, but this is not something that everyone needs to know. 

For me Risk Management is how we  take what the risk assessment has given us and design the workplace, equipment and way the work is done to ensure that we do not cause harm (or at least reduce the risk to an acceptable level). I take the view that what the workforce (and others) needs is a simple description of the potential for harm for the task in question, the steps that have been taken to help keep them safe and healthy and their role and responsibiities to help the employer meet that aim.

What make it more complicates than that?

Chris

Depends on what you are doing: if you are looking after a bunch of cleaners then it makes sense to integrate the COSHH requirements with other H&S risk assessments, the hazardous substances being only a small part of that role by contrast in the labs where we have chemists doing stuff I would expect a specific chemical COSHH. The other stuff (manual handling, work equipment etc) being integrated into a general risk assessment  process.