control of substances hazardous to health 2002

• many hazardous substance found in care environments
• these range from body fluids such as blood, urine to chemicals, disinfectant, cleaning materials and medications
• some care settings will have hazardous waste such as used dressings and clinical waste or soiled laundry
• regulation requires employers to either prevent or reduce their workers exposure to substances that are hazardous to health
• they must protect staff and service users from harm by ensuring that potentially dangerous substances are safely stored or disposed of
• that staff who use hazardous substances are properly trained to do so
• coshh covers the storage, labelling and disposal and hazardous substances
• must be a coshh file listing all hazardous substances in workplace
• coshh file must be kept up to date
• chemicals and medication must be kept in their original containers
• substances must be stored in safe and secure place
• containers must have an appropriate safety cap or lid
• coshh file should include

  identify and name hazardous substance
• coshh file should include

  state where hazardous substance is kept
• coshh file should include

  identify what hazardous labels on container mean
• coshh file should include

  describe effects of substance
• coshh file should include

  state maximum amount of time it is safe to be exposed to them
• coshh file should include

  describe how to deal with an emergency involving the hazardous substance