Welcome Guest! The IOSH forums are a free resource to both members and non-members. Login or register to use them

Postings made by forum users are personal opinions. IOSH is not responsible for the content or accuracy of any of the information contained in forum postings. Please carefully consider any advice you receive.

Notification

Icon
Error

Options
Go to last post Go to first unread
Lojikglos  
#1 Posted : 02 April 2015 12:18:43(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
Lojikglos

Guys

could someone point me in the right direction for the Regulation within the COSHH Regs where it instructs msds must be available on site in case of accident incident please.

Cheers
L

OH AND HAPPY EASTER if your that way inclined
JohnW  
#2 Posted : 02 April 2015 12:53:40(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
JohnW

Lojikglos,

It is more useful to have the COSHH Assessment documents printed out and available at point of use (or in same room) of the materials.

The COSHH ACoP L5 says

Quote:

Making information available to safety representatives:
para 264
The employer must make all relevant information available to employees or their representatives in accordance with the Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996, and the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977.


and

Quote:

para 285 includes
first-aid facilities sufficient to deal with an incident until the emergency services arrive, where the facilities are located and stored, and the likely effects on the workforce of the accident, incident or emergency;

procedures for employees to follow and details of who should know these, how they should respond to an incident, what action they should take, and the roles of the people who have been assigned specific responsibilities;


will be achieved if the COSHH assessments are available at the scene of an accident

JOhn
Lojikglos  
#3 Posted : 02 April 2015 13:12:47(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
Lojikglos

Cheers JohnW

ive done the COSHH Assessment but thought it was a requirement that both Coshh Assessment and MSDS had to be on site and in emergency situations...ie someone may need hospital treatment, it was the MSDS that had to accompany the injured parties to Hospital?

L
chris42  
#4 Posted : 02 April 2015 13:19:42(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
chris42

12 (2)(iii) In COSHH 2002

Where I previously worked we had the SDS requested by the hospital in the past. So we ensured after that the IP was easily able to take a SDS (or as was MSDS) with them after that.

Chris

JohnW  
#5 Posted : 02 April 2015 15:27:32(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
JohnW

Logikglos, Chris,

Ok yes have the supplier SDS available if it is needed. It has more medical info presumably relevant to hospital staff needs.

I've always found First Aiders can more quickly interpret a COSHH assessment when they are attending to an injured employee so we have them near point of use.

Employees need the COSHH assessment as the PPE stated in it is specific to their task - and our OHSAS auditors look for the COSHH assessments too!

John
chris.packham  
#6 Posted : 02 April 2015 15:33:37(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
chris.packham

Ask yourself, what does the hospital want to know?

It needs to know not what is on the safety data sheet but what the injured person was actually exposed to. The two are generally not the same. We purchase chemicals to use for a purpose. In the process of using them it is common that we change the nature of the chemicals, and thus the hazards. So what is on the safety data sheet may not be relevant. The COSHH risk assessment should have identified the real chemicals present during a particular task and based itself on those. The current COSHH ACoP recognises this:
==
Paragraph 57 - The risk assessment should consider the work activity, including:

all the substances hazardous to health (including biological agents, and simple asphyxiants) arising from the work (used, produced, synthesised, created as waste or by-products, or released from processes or during accidents, incidents and emergencies);
work done by sub-contractors, at the workplace, that may exposure employees to substances hazardous to health.
and
Paragraph 67 - It may be necessary to collect information on the properties and attributes of substances hazardous to health from a variety of sources to fully inform the assessment process
==
Additionally, can you trust the information on the safety data sheet? The ECHA in Helsinki recently examined over 1000 safety data sheets prepared under REACH and found that over half were incorrect!

So what the hospital really needs is the risk assessment as this will give them the information about chemicals to which the person may have been exposed.

Chris

Users browsing this topic
Guest
You cannot post new topics in this forum.
You cannot reply to topics in this forum.
You cannot delete your posts in this forum.
You cannot edit your posts in this forum.
You cannot create polls in this forum.
You cannot vote in polls in this forum.