COSHH assessments for construction, printed with the RAMS.
A COSHH assessment for each hazardous substance on the job, from a standard sheet or from the product's own safety data sheet.
What a COSHH assessment is
The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 require an employer to assess the risk from any hazardous substance before the work starts, and the steps needed to control it. With five or more employees, the significant findings are written down.
A safety data sheet is not a COSHH assessment. The data sheet is the supplier's information about the product; the assessment is how it is used on this job, who is exposed and how, and the controls in place.
15 standard COSHH sheets
Petrol, diesel, LPG, cement, lime, wet concrete, respirable crystalline silica, construction dust, wood dust, gypsum dust, man-made mineral fibres, welding fume, bitumen fume, diesel exhaust and leptospirosis.
Each sheet gives the hazard symbols and signal word, the hazard statements, how exposure happens, the workplace exposure limit, control measures, PPE, health surveillance and first aid. Sheets for substances made by the work, such as silica dust and welding fume, say so, since no safety data sheet applies.
Respirable crystalline silica
Produced by the work; no safety data sheet applies. Hazard symbols show the type of hazard.
- H350i May cause cancer by inhalation.
- H372 Causes damage to the lungs through prolonged or repeated inhalation.
Workplace exposure limit
0.1 mg/m³, 8-hour TWA (EH40/2005).
Control measures
- Avoid the dust first: use pre-cut material, a block splitter or direct fastening instead of cutting, chasing or drilling.
- Control at the tool: water suppression, or on-tool extraction to an H or M class unit.
- Where controls leave dust in the air, add RPE with an APF of 20.
PPE
FFP3 respirator (EN 149), face-fit tested; wearer clean-shaven.
The standard sheet for respirable crystalline silica.
COSHH assessments on a RAMS
Sheets are picked on the RAMS's COSHH tab and copied into the job, where they can be edited. Each carries how the substance is used on this job, the controls for this job, and its likelihood and impact. Where the RAMS does not mention the substance, the tab asks how it is used.
- 6 Low
Cement
Mixed on site in a drum mixer to bed the manhole cover frame.
- 12 Medium
Respirable crystalline silica
Raised breaking out and cutting the concrete surface over the trench line.
- 4 Low
Diesel
Fuel for the 3t excavator, refilled from a bunded bowser.
Three sheets on a RAMS, each with how it is used on this job.
From a product's safety data sheet
On Professional and Principal, a product's safety data sheet can be uploaded to the library. The sheet is drafted from it, any field the data sheet does not give is left blank to fill, and the sheet is offered on every RAMS after.