Rank: Forum user 
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Having mentioned this in a previous life and attracted a facial expression as to say, You stupid boy, Pike, I find myself again working on and reviewing COSHH Assessments. Surely if you put the reason for use, the method of application etc and a few signature boxes on the MSDS then the MSDS then becomes a full and detailed COSHH Assessment...Saves so much cutting and pasting....
Right now, Ive pulled the pin stand by for the comments. Edited by user 30 March 2022 11:14:45(UTC)
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Rank: Super forum user
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Hi Mid Life First, nothing in law says that any risk assessment needs ANY signatures, though you might be working with a document management system that requires them perhaps for reasons of ISO accreditation. However, the MSDS tells you (mostly) about hazards, whereas a risk assessment (whether COSHH or otherwise) is about assessing risk. So, you could have something very nasty which due to the way it is used poses negligible risk. For example, you might mix a nasty solvent with a nasty carcinogen but do this by placing two plastic bags into a sealed container that deals with the packaging by e.g. melting of dissolving. Hence, no exposure to either nasty. You MIGHT have exposure to whatever is created by the process (and you haven't got an SDS for that!) Conversely you might have something seemingly quite benign and which might not even come with an SDS, like tap water. But enough exposure and it might pose significant risk, some of which may not be entirely obvious from reading the SDS. As an aside, your SDS should no longer be an MSDS.
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 2 users thanked peter gotch for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Yes, what Pete says, I can further add( and I said this last week about COSHH and batteries) you need to carry out a risk assessment in accordance with COSHH if you are dealing with any hazardous substances and record the findings. The findings do not need to be in a separate document called ‘COSHH risk assessment’. If you think about if you were doing a risk assessment for a drill, you wouldn’t say it’s got a sharp bit on it, and it goes around and has electricity in it- which is what you are saying if all you do is copy an SDS. You should describe what you use it for and what might go wrong and how you prevent that.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Originally Posted by: Mid Life  You stupid boy, Pike....stand by for the comments
A Safety Data Sheet classifies the hazards associated with a substance or mixture in the supply chain i.e. in its "pure" form in the packaging from the supplier.
Your COSHH assessment is about how the product is being used in your business process with your local control measures.
There is rumour of a mythical beast "the eSDS" (extended Safety Data Sheet) where the supplier, based upon feedback from its customer base, includes exposure scenarios for various applications of the product in evisaged usages - this comes a little closer to your limited involvement approach HOWEVER the scenarios are very generic and would never be representative of an actual "real life" use. In missing the link to reality they also miss the point of conducting assessment.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Originally Posted by: Mid Life You stupid boy, Pike....stand by for the comments
A Safety Data Sheet classifies the hazards associated with a substance or mixture in the supply chain i.e. in its "pure" form in the packaging from the supplier.
Your COSHH assessment is about how the product is being used in your business process with your local control measures.
There is rumour of a mythical beast "the eSDS" (extended Safety Data Sheet) where the supplier, based upon feedback from its customer base, includes exposure scenarios for various applications of the product in evisaged usages - this comes a little closer to your limited involvement approach HOWEVER the scenarios are very generic and would never be representative of an actual "real life" use. In missing the link to reality they also miss the point of conducting assessment.
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