Posted By Paul Higgins
Is there a regulative/legislative requirement
to include first aid arrangements within a COSHH assessment, dealing with accidental exposure.

Section 12 of the COSHH Regs (information, instruction & training), specifically 12 (2) (c) provides for,

' Appropriate precautions and Actions to be taken by the employee in order to safeguard himself and other employees in the workplace'

Does this infer a specific requirement to include First Aid information within COSHH assessments?

Posted By Paul Higgins
Many thanks.

I'm in agreement, information should be included as a matter of good practice, unfortunately not all share this reasoned approach, this is why I ask the question relating to legislative/regulative requirements as sometimes a mandatory instruction is the only catalyst which works.

Posted By David Bannister
Paul, first aid measures following exposure to a hazardous substance is part of the risk control regime (to reduce severity of effect) so in my opinion must be part of the information available to users and responders.

Of course it's largely useless if it's locked away in some manager's filing system!

Whether the entire assessment is made available at the point of use/potential exposure is open to discussion but the significant findings must be communicated to those that need to know and I think that if a substance presents such a risk that the speed and nature of intervention is critical to reducing harm then make everyone fully aware by whatever means is possible.