A COSHH assessment from a safety data sheet.
A safety data sheet is long. A COSHH assessment is a form. Here is what the sheet gives you, what it does not, and how to get from one to the other.
- A safety data sheet does not replace a COSHH assessment (HSE).
- Take the hazards, exposure limits, protective equipment and first aid from the sheet.
- Add what only you know: the task, who does it, how long and how often.
- Quickler reads the sheet you send and fills your own COSHH form from it and a voice note or text.
- A competent person still owns the judgement. Quickler does the typing.
A sheet is the start, not the assessment
HSE is plain on this: a good safety data sheet does not replace carrying out and recording a COSHH risk assessment. The sheet describes the product in general. The assessment covers your task, your people and your controls.
From sheet to assessment
Take the hazards, the exposure limits, the protective equipment and the first aid from it.
Who uses it, for how long, how often, and where.
Write down who is at risk and what you do about it.
Send the sheet, say how it is used
Start your COSHH Check, send the safety data sheet in WhatsApp, then say what it is for and who uses it. Quickler fills the assessment from the sheet and from what you said.
Try a COSHH Check on one product.
Send one safety data sheet and see the Record. £75 a month per phone number, or £750 a year (2 months free). Unlimited free dashboard accounts.
What the sheet is and is notThe rule
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The supplier must give you a safety data sheet for a hazardous product. It follows a standard 16-section layout. It tells you the hazards, the handling and storage, the exposure controls, the first aid and the disposal. It does not know your job. HSE COSHH frequently asked questions says a good sheet does not substitute for carrying out and recording a COSHH risk assessment. HSE lists reading the labels and sheets as the first step, finding which substances are harmful. |
Which parts you useThe sections
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Hazards and labelling: the pictograms, the signal word and the H and P statements. They tell you what the product can do to a person. Exposure controls and PPE: any workplace exposure limit, and the protective equipment the maker recommends. Limits for the UK are in EH40/2005 workplace exposure limits. First aid, fire, spills and disposal: the emergency half of your assessment. What the sheet cannot give you: how long the person is exposed, how often, in what quantity, and who else is nearby. HSE asks you to think about those, and about contractors and visitors, under HSE: how to carry out a COSHH risk assessment. |
The HSE route in orderThe steps
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HSE sets out the steps: identify the hazards, assess the risks, control the risks, inform and train, record your findings, review your controls. The sheet feeds step one and part of step three. You supply the rest. With five or more employees you must record the assessment. Below that, HSE still expects you to write down the steps you took. The law is the COSHH Regulations 2002. |
How it fills the formQuickler
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Your firm has a COSHH Check with your own questions and your own Word form. To use it, start the Check in WhatsApp, send the safety data sheet as a file, then say, by voice note or text, what it is for, who uses it, for how long and how often. Say done. Quickler reads the whole sheet, puts the hazards, protective equipment, first aid and disposal on the right questions, and adds what you said about the task. Where a sheet prints a hazard or precautionary code with its wording cut short, the official wording is used. The Record is named after the product and comes back in your own form. Every word on it can be edited. It does not replace a competent person. Read it, correct it, and be satisfied it fits your job. If a figure is not on the sheet and you did not say it, it is left blank, not guessed. Write 10 COSHH records a month and that's £7.50 a record; at 30 a month it is £2.50 a record. Reports, photos and messages are unlimited. See the COSHH guide for field teams. £75 a month per phone number, or £750 a year (2 months free). |
No. HSE says a good safety data sheet does not substitute for carrying out and recording a COSHH risk assessment. The sheet describes the product. The assessment covers your use of it.
The hazard and labelling sections, the exposure controls and protective equipment, and the first aid, fire, spill and disposal sections.
Yes. You send the sheet as a file in WhatsApp and say how the product is used. Quickler fills your COSHH Check from both. You then read and correct the Record.
No. It records what the sheet says and what you tell it. A competent person decides whether the controls are suitable.
No. Send the file. Quickler reads it.