https://www.applytosupply.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/g-cloud/services/508392955327808

Well that really inspires confidence "900,000 pre-written COSHH assessments"

How do they know exactly what I use, how I use it, what control measures I have in place and most importantly what gaps exist that still need addressing to fulfil employer duties in controlling substances hazardous to health

Hi sappers

How many COSHH assesssments do you have?

How many of those are integrated with assessments of other risks?

Are you confident that your existing COSHH assessments do the business?

Does your workforce have input into the COSHH assessments that influence how the risks that THEY are exposed to are managed?

For reasons such as those which Roundtuit refers, is it actually likely that off she shelf COSHH assessments will be good enough to enable YOUR organisation to comply with the relevant legal duties?

This level of responses and we wonder why hardly anyone uses the forum anymore.

From what I can see the provider you have been using offers more than simply downloadable pre-compleed COSHH assessments despite the comments on here.

However, I suggest you either look to upskill someone in your business, if not you yourself, to do this or you engage the services of an external consultant, someone who can provide a personal touch. Upskilling your own staff would be my preference. A one off fee for training. Flexibility to keep the register up-to-date and an upskill opportunity for someone in your team.

Watson, two companies in particular come to my mind.

Both USED to focus on providing specialist services and were very good at what they offered - one in occupational hygiene, the other in ergonomics.

Then both decided that the way forward was to skew towards selling off the shelf packages,

When I was at school (a long time ago and COSHH hadn't been invented) we had an experiment in Chemistry (that I suspect has been ditched in favour of something inherently a little safer).

So it was about mixing A, B and C.

A was sodium in its atomic solid form. Highly reactive so was stored in oil as I recall. Had to remove a lump of sodium from its glass vessel, cut off a small piece and return the lump to the glass vessel.

B as I recall was some permanganate compound in liquid form. 

C was some solvent, possibly acetone.

So, one could get a Safety Data Sheet for each of A, B and C, but each in isolation would do very little in terms of a COSHH assessment for the experiment. 

Each SDS would facilitate assessing the risks of handling the risks of the individual reagent and might give some clues as to what happens if mixing A and B, B and C, or C and A, but probably not mixing all three.

....and for that experiment the COSHH assessment needs to include working out what the process is about. What happens, what is the intended output, what are the potential intermediary compounds, what are the potential unwanted byproducts etc etc?

Complicated enough with a relative simple experiment in INORGANIC chemistry. As soon as you start dealing with ORGANIC chemistry it gets much, much more difficult.

Some third party supplier can easily distil information from the SDSs for each of the chemicals you might be using in the workplace. But unless they know what you are using these chemicals for, they are never going to be able to do anything like a competent COSHH assessment of the process.

Further, there are lots of things which COSHH applies to where the chances are you won't even have access to an SDS, unless someone thinks that an SDS for e.g. laboratory grade dihydrogen oxide is a good starting point for doing COSHH assessments for wet processes.

I have yet to see an SDS for planks of wood, but I do know that if someone sands that wood the process needs a COSHH assessment.

Edited by user 22 July 2025 14:19:05(UTC)  | Reason: Typo

Originally Posted by: peter gotch

I have yet to see an SDS for planks of wood, but I do know that if someone sands that wood the process needs a COSHH assessment.

Sadly I have seen many SDS for wood based products and surprisigly the majority of suppliers remembered to mention release of formaldehyde along with the creation of dusts through dry working.

The preservative treatments under the Biocidal Products Regulations are fun given there are both the EU and UK lists of approved agents.

I am not here flying the flag for the system the OP was using.

However, I am asking for a bit more tact in how we treat posters on here. Simply piling in and mocking them for the system they currently use without even attempting to answer their question is unkind and unnecessary.

A company called Sevron regularly waste my time with communications regarding "my customer / their client" demanding updated Safety Data Sheets.

It really grinds when they keep sending update requests when the product has been withdrawn, the customer has gone out of business or they are simply no longer the clients provider.

They too extholl the vast quantity of MSDS and COSHH assessments they hold on file.

Originally Posted by: WatsonD

I am not here flying the flag for the system the OP was using.

However, I am asking for a bit more tact in how we treat posters on here. Simply piling in and mocking them for the system they currently use without even attempting to answer their question is unkind and unnecessary.

your quit right my comment was not very professional, i think we all get tired of companys offering "off the shelf" assessments.

Sapper if you pick any company to do this that does not look at how you are using the product, make very sure you are using it EXACTLY as they tell you to in their assessment. Sadly in 30 years as an inspector i saw two many rehashed data sheets and very few good assessments, and never found a company that could offer these as a data base with no interaction that were worth the paper they were written on.