Safety information
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH)
Under The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002, employers have a legal obligation to control the exposure of employees and others, to substances hazardous to health. Hazardous substances can take many forms including:
- substances used at work for example cleaning substances paints, solvents, adhesives etc
- substances generated during work activities; fumes or dust produces through your work
- naturally occurring substances: flour, grain dust, anthrax, etc
- biological agents such as bacteria
Any substance classified as hazardous to health under the Chemicals (Hazard Information and packaging for Supply) Regulations 2002 will require a COSHH assessment. To make it easier any substance displaying one of the following symbols will require an assessment.
These symbols are only relevant to specific substances for example cleaning fluids, further advice is required for substances generated during a work process, naturally occurring substances and biological agents.
Any person supplying a hazardous substance for use at work has a legal obligation to supply upon request a Safety Data Sheet. This document will provide all the necessary information for you to carry out a suitable assessment of the risk associated with the product.
Red Star Cleaning provides full COSHH Assessments for all substances hazardous to health.
Health and safety policy
General statement of policy
Red Star Cleaning will adhere to the following health and safety policy as far as is reasonably practicable, in accordance with the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act. This applies equally to everybody whether they be employees, contractors or visitors.
1. To provide and maintain a safe place of work without risk to health.
2. To provide systems and procedures for work that are safe and without risk to health.
3. To provide and maintain plant and equipment for work that are safe and without risk to health.
4. To make arrangements to ensure safety and the absence of risks to health in connection with the use, transport, storage and handling of articles and substances that are inherently or potentially dangerous.
5. To maintain any workplace under Red Star Cleaning's control in a safe and risk free condition and ensure that all entrances and exits from the workplace are safe and risk free.
6. To communicate to staff the Red Star Cleaning commitment to safety and to provide comprehensive information, instruction, training and supervision, with the object of ensuring, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of everyone.
7. To provide and maintain a working environment for employees, visitors and contractors which is safe and without risk to health and which is adequate as regards facilities and arrangements for their welfare at work.
8. Red Star Cleaning will endeavor to provide a working environment free of undue stress or excessive working hours.
The policy will be reviewed annually to reflect changes to responsibilities and operating procedures. Risk Assessments and Operational Guidelines for specific areas and/or operations supplement this general policy and should be read in conjunction with the policy document. A set of these is held by the Personnel Manager.
Risk assessment
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, require that employers, and the self-employed, must undertake a suitable and sufficient risk assessment.
A risk assessment is simply an examination of the work we are going to carry out and the working environment. The purpose of a risk assessment is to identify anything with the potential to cause accidents and ill health to either our employees or to members of the public/visitors.
If this assessment identifies a significant a risk to health and safety, we must implement measures to either eliminate or control the risk to a reasonable level. The law does have an appreciation for the fact that it is not possible to eliminate all risk, however, it does require all risks to be controlled. Red Star Cleaning has a legal duty to record the significant findings of the assessment.
We review the risk assessment on a regular basis as and when there are any changes in the environment, personnel, equipment used etc and this carried out at least annually irrespective of change in the aforementioned.
Although Red Star Cleaning has the responsibility to ensure that the risk assessment is carried out, we must also ensure that whoever undertakes the risk assessment is competent to do so. This may be via formal training or simply by virtue of time served in that particular discipline.
When considering the risks associated with our activities we need to first look at the hazards.
A hazard is defined as “anything, which has the potential to cause harm.”
Examples of typical hazards are as follows:
- Working at height with no edge protection
- Working in the presence of asbestos-containing materials
- Working with chemicals
In order to differentiate between the severities of the identified risks, we give them a risk rating, i.e. low, medium or high.
Our risk assessments are not overcomplicated, it is essential that we only judge whether the hazards are significant and whether or not the precautions in place are satisfactory.
Contact us for more information.