COSHH for cleaning companies.
Cleaners handle hazardous products at many client sites. The COSHH Regulations 2002 apply to every one. Here is what to assess and how to keep the records up to date.
- Every hazardous cleaning product needs an assessment, however common it is.
- Mixing products can make harmful gas. Bleach with an acid cleaner is the classic example.
- Cleaners at client sites need the information before they use the product, not months later.
- HSE says do not automatically choose PPE as the control.
- Quickler files a COSHH Record per product from the sheet and what you say. It does not write the assessment for you.
Every cleaning product needs an assessment
Bleach, descalers, oven cleaners, disinfectants and degreasers are hazardous to health. The employer must assess each one, control exposure and tell the cleaners.
Keep it simple
Ask the supplier if you do not have it.
Where, who, how long and how often.
Regulation 12: information, instruction and training.
A Record per product, from WhatsApp
Start your COSHH Check, send the safety data sheet, say how the product is used. A Record is filed, named after the product.
File your first cleaning 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 law asksThe rule
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the COSHH Regulations 2002 apply to every employer whose people meet hazardous substances. HSE: how to carry out a COSHH risk assessment sets the steps: identify, assess, control, inform and train, record, review. HSE keeps cleaning-related advice under HSE: COSHH and your industry. |
What a cleaning firm holdsThe products
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Bleach and other disinfectants, descalers, caustic oven and drain cleaners, degreasers, floor strippers, solvent-based polishes. They irritate or burn skin and eyes, and some give off harmful vapour. Mixing them is a risk in its own right, so say on the assessment what must never be mixed. |
Many sites, many cupboardsThe problem
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A cleaner works from a van and a client cupboard. The client may stock products you have not assessed. HSE asks you to consider other people affected, such as visitors, and to review after changes (HSE: how to carry out a COSHH risk assessment). |
Filed from the cupboardQuickler
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When a new product turns up, the cleaner starts your COSHH Check in WhatsApp, sends the safety data sheet and says what it is for, how long it is used and how often. Quickler fills the Record from both and files it under the product name, in your own Word form. Do the whole cupboard in one sitting, a Record each. It does not write the assessment for you: a competent person must read it. 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 and risk assessment software. |
Yes. Any employer whose people use hazardous substances must assess the risk. Cleaning products are among the commonest.
Any that carry hazard labelling: bleach, descalers, oven and drain cleaners, disinfectants, degreasers and strippers. The safety data sheet and label say.
Yes. Regulation 12 asks for information, instruction and training on the substances, risks and controls.
Many clients ask for them. Quickler Records come back in your own Word form to share.
Yes. Do them one after another in one chat. Each is its own Record.