Guide
What is a COSHH assessment?
If your work creates dust or uses solvents, adhesives or other chemicals, a COSHH assessment is part of the paperwork buyers and assessors expect. Here is what it covers.
The short answer
A COSHH assessment is an assessment of the health risks from hazardous substances used or created by your work, and the controls needed to protect people from them. It is required under Regulation 6 of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002, which say you must assess the risks before work with hazardous substances begins. It covers dusts, including respirable crystalline silica from cutting or drilling, along with solvents, adhesives, sealants, fumes and similar substances.
What a COSHH assessment covers
- The substances involved. What hazardous substances are used or generated by the task, including dust and fume, not just products in containers.
- Who could be exposed and how. The workers and anyone else who could breathe in, absorb or contact the substance.
- The level of risk. How harmful the substance is and how much exposure the work causes.
- The controls. The measures that reduce exposure, applied in order of the hierarchy of control, from eliminating the substance through to personal protective equipment.
- Review. Revisiting the assessment when the substance, the task or the controls change.
For electrical contractors
Electrician CHAS pack · £95
COSHH assessments written for the substances electricians actually meet, including construction dust, solvents and sealants, ready to adapt.
Do electricians need COSHH assessments?
Often, yes. Even trades that do not obviously handle chemicals create hazardous substances in the course of the work. Drilling or chasing into masonry produces respirable crystalline silica, a serious respiratory hazard, and electricians commonly use contact cleaners, solvents and expanding foams. Where any hazardous substance is used or generated, a COSHH assessment is expected, and a CHAS assessment will look for it as part of the evidence that you identify hazards and control them.
Related guides
Read what a risk assessment is, the CHAS document checklist, and the CHAS requirements in full.
Common questions
What is a COSHH assessment?
An assessment of the health risks from hazardous substances used or created by your work, and the controls needed to protect people. It is required under Regulation 6 of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002.
What does COSHH cover?
Hazardous substances including dusts such as respirable crystalline silica, along with solvents, adhesives, sealants and fumes. It covers substances generated by the work, like dust from cutting, not only products in containers.
When is a COSHH assessment required?
Before work begins with any hazardous substance. The COSHH Regulations 2002 require you to assess the health risks and decide the controls before exposure can happen.
Do electricians need a COSHH assessment?
Often yes. Drilling or chasing masonry creates respirable crystalline silica, and electricians commonly use contact cleaners, solvents and expanding foams, so a COSHH assessment is expected wherever a hazardous substance is used or generated.