I think it depends...... Essentials is quite good if you work with lots of one or two main products eg you are a bakery - flour - sugar I have never been very impressed if you use it for things that you just use periodically - like oven cleaner for perhaps nitromors. Ie things that are quite nasty but use is infrequent and small amount So if you were a specialist trade with a finite and limited range of substances you are exposed to then it could work but for the more general "building stuff" then perhaps not that good.

I would recommend that you approach COSHH essentials with caution, particularly where you are dealing with potential skin exposure to chemicals. COSHH essentials is based largely on risk phrases. There are thousands of chemicals that do not have risk phrases that, in contact with skin, can contribute to or cause contact dermatitis. For example, there is a number of chemicals that are well known to dermatologists as sensitisers (and feature in the catalogues of suppliers of patch test chemicals to dermatology clinics) that have not been classified as R43/H317. I have had occasions where, when investigating an occupational skin problem, the risk assessment based on COSHH essentials has shown no significant hazard simply because the workplace conditions that were causing the skin problem did not contain any chemicals with risk phrases.

As long as users are aware of its limitations (see Chris Packham's comments above, for example), the site is useful for sorting the wheat (those assessments which need specialist input) from the chaff (straightforward assessments not needing specialist knowledge). LB