Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) : Genial Genetics

Complying with the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations helps minimise the risk involved with exposure to chemicals or hazardous substances in the laboratory. iPassport QMS enables Laboratories to keep accurate and up to date COSHH records which will held the lab to control exposure to hazardous substances and teach best practise in chemicals handling, minimising the risk to employees.

Laboratory management software can have positive effects in your work environment, enabling the lab to carefully following through the requirements of COSHH.

This helps to improve productivity by minimising risk and exposure. Employee awareness will help the employer implement more effective controls (less use of raw material); improve employee morale; and encourage improved employee understanding and compliance with health and safety requirements.

If a laboratory fails to adequately control hazardous substances, your employees may be affected. Effects from hazardous substances range from mild skin and eye irritation to chronic lung disease or on rare occasions death. This results in lost productivity to your laboratory, leaving the employer liable to enforcement action, including prosecution under the COSHH Regulations and could also result in civil claims from laboratory staff. COSHH health and safety legislation when implemented is a useful management tool, setting eight basic measures that employers, and laboratory staff, must take.

These are managed within iPassport QMS by linking the COSHH records to their reagents and pulling through this data to each SOP that the reagent is used in. This creates a simple step-by-step approach which will helps the user assess risks, implement any measures needed to control exposure and establish good working practices.