Rank: Forum user 
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Was asked the following today and did not know the answer If I need to have a COSHH cabinet to store a small amount of cleaning chemicals in my workplace canteen.
Why do supermarkets not store all the domestic household cleaning products that are on the shelves which are a far greater volume than I have in my workplace in COSHH cabinets and subject to a far greater amount of pedestrian traffic Any ideas ?
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Rank: Super forum user 
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1) there is no need for a flammable cabinet which I am presuming your COSHH cabinet refers to form most cleaning chemicals.
2) Domestic versions stocked by supermarkets are generally received and sold unopened i.e. as packed by the manufacturer who must ensure a degree of leak proof based upon the classified hazard for transport. As the seal remains intact until the consumer gets it home how will spills & dribbles occur?
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 4 users thanked Roundtuit for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user
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1) there is no need for a flammable cabinet which I am presuming your COSHH cabinet refers to form most cleaning chemicals.
2) Domestic versions stocked by supermarkets are generally received and sold unopened i.e. as packed by the manufacturer who must ensure a degree of leak proof based upon the classified hazard for transport. As the seal remains intact until the consumer gets it home how will spills & dribbles occur?
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4 users thanked Roundtuit for this useful post.
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Rank: Forum user
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Hi Roundtuit Thanks for that your post makes sense. One of the cleaning chemicals we have I believe is flammable but would need to double check. The majority of the chemicals as you would appreciate are corrosive so believe I would need COSHH cabinet(s) which is obviously corrosion resistant to chemical spills.
With the need to keep my corrosives and flammable apart
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Rank: Super forum user
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Flammability of a product - liquid or gas has nothing to do with COSHH.
It still surprises me how many CoSHH assessments and safety people still believe they are one and the same.
For products for cleaning a kitchen, I would doubt they are flammable, so don't need storing in a flammables cabinet.
As for providing a cabinet under CosHH, probably an excess reaction if quantities are little more than domestic quantities.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Have you considered a risk assessment for the products when used and stored as they might be if no special storage was available? For example, what volume is stored in any one place? If there were a spillage what would the consequences be, given the volume of product that would be spilt? What is the maximum stored in any one place and what is then the potential for a spillage that would be sufficient to represent an unacceptable risk? With regard to the 'flammable' product, is this just the flammable sign on the packaging? This might merely indicate that there is one constituent that is flammable, but that this is present in the complete product at a relatively low concentration and that the complete product is unlikely to present a serious fire risk (unless perhaps stored in a very large volume). In my experience few organisations I visit have what you are describing as a COSHH cabinet for the small quantity of chemicals used for janitorial purposes. Most have a locker or cupboard in which the 'janitorial' cleaning chemicals are kept without any real issue. Just occasionally there is one that is really highly flammable and in a quantity that does require secure storage, but in my experience this is not common. These are just some general thoughts as we do not have precise details of the chemicals, quantities, circumstances under which they will be stored, etc.
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Rank: Super forum user
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I all my years in H&S (man and boy!) I have never come across the expression ‘COSHH cabinet’. I have dealt with poisons cupboards, controlled drugs cabinets and flammables cupboards but never a ‘COSHH’ cabinet. Yes storage is an issue, which people forget. Storing your substances has to be taken into account from the security as well as pure Health and Safety. Strictly speaking COSHH only applies to the chemical properties of a substance not its physical properties such as flammability but who cares what you call the assessment as long at the ALL of the risks are managed. Cleaning chemicals need to be controlled as you will want to stop untrained people misusing them, eg mixing the wrong chemicals down the toilet. Fire and security are as Chris said less of an issue. Yes these things are on shop shelves but why do you think they’re covered in all of that “terrible” plastic packaging with hard to open tops?
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2 users thanked A Kurdziel for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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You need to think about segregation - bleach and acid toilet cleaner are the old chestnuts, usually solved by only having one or the other on the premises. Most cleaning products do not need much more than this sort of segregation to prevent the inadvertent mixture of things that aren't compatible as A Kurdzeil has said. The only other thing I would consider as a must where storage is concerned is making sure that none of the products are stored anywhere near food stuffs - know this is a bit obvious but not on the same shelf, on the lowest shelf in a cupboard or if possible in separate cupboards. Having said that of course it depends on what you have and how much of it you store!
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