Health and Safety

Chemical Safety and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH)

Handling Chemicals

Chemicals can have the potential to cause disease or ill-health, damage the environment or create dangerous environments.  When you are planning to use chemicals to carry out research or other work-related activities you must make sure you are aware of the hazards presented by the chemicals you will use and understand how to manage the risk presented to prevent or minimise harm.

When managing the risks associated with the use of chemicals you must carry out a COSHH risk assessment of the work activity. You should consult the substance Safety Data Sheets (SDS) and consider all stages of the process including:

  • Supply and ordering
  • Storage
  • Use
  • Disposal
  • On and off campus transportation of chemicals

Depending on the chemicals and other substances you may be using, managing the risks associated will involve:

  • Removing the potential of being exposed to the substances by reviewing potential exposure routes
  • Removing or reducing the risk of accidental release of hazardous substances
  • Controlling waste disposal
  • Maintaining good levels of housekeeping, safe storage
  • Following working techniques that minimise the risk of incidents

Depending on the substances you will be using, you need to ensure you keep risk assessments and their associated documentation for a suitable amount of time. For example, if you are working with carcinogens, you should keep records for 40 years.

To ensure that control measures you implement from your COSHH risk assessment are put in place, are followed and are working effectively, supervisors, managers, Principal Investigators and others who are responsible for work areas should carry out regular monitoring and inspection. Actions from these should then be addressed.

Novel Chemicals

Novel chemicals have not been tested and have no safety information, however, in many cases hazards can be anticipated from understanding their chemical structure.

Physical Hazards

For more information on physcial hazards such as fire and explosion, please see the section on DSEAR.

Health Hazards

Where substances present a health hazard, the exposure routes should be reviewed on the relevant Safety Data Sheet and ranked in order of most likely exposure route. For example, if the most likely way to be exposed to a substance is through inhalation, more time and resource should be channelled to manage this risk before addressing other routes of exposure.

Environmental Hazards

Where substances present a risk to the environment, these must be disposed of through a responsible hazardous waste contractor. This can be arranged by either contacting the DSEAR Technical Team in Technical Services (Schools) or by storing the substance safely and putting a request into the SEF Service Centre for hazardous waste disposal.

Toxins and Poisons

Toxins and poisons are substances that can be fatal to humans. They must be stored securely in a locked cabinet at all times and minimum quantities held.  If you need to purchase a toxin or poison, you must contact the Science Schools Health and Safety team or the central Health and Safety team prior to doing so.

Useful Documents and Links