COSHH in warehouses and workshops: the substances people forget
Battery charging, diesel exhaust, cleaning chemicals and weld fume are all COSHH. A practical way to build the register without a consultant.
12 August 2026 · 5 min read
The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 apply wherever people can be exposed to a substance that can harm them. The register in a manufacturing or distribution business is longer than the chemical store suggests.
Substances that get missed
- Diesel engine exhaust emissions from forklifts, lorries idling in the yard and generators. Recognised as carcinogenic; the control is usually ventilation, switching to electric trucks and idling rules.
- Hydrogen from battery charging in the charging bay, and the sulphuric acid in the batteries themselves.
- Welding fume, which the HSE reclassified in 2019 so that all indoor welding requires local exhaust ventilation.
- Cleaning chemicals, particularly where bleach and acid descalers are stored together.
- Wood dust and flour dust in production, both with workplace exposure limits.
- Isocyanates in paints and adhesives.
The four steps, in one sitting
HSE describes assessment as identifying the hazard, deciding who might be harmed and how, evaluating and deciding on controls, and recording and reviewing. For a substance a small business already uses, this is a single sitting:
- Get the safety data sheet from the supplier. Section 2 gives the hazard pictograms and statements, section 8 the exposure limits and PPE.
- Write down who is exposed, by which route (inhalation, skin, eyes, ingestion), how often and for how long.
- List the controls in place following the hierarchy: eliminate, substitute, enclose, ventilate, then procedures and PPE.
- Decide whether exposure monitoring or health surveillance is needed, record the residual risk, and sign it.
Review
Review when anything changes, and at least yearly for anything with a meaningful residual risk. A signed assessment with a review date in a calendar is worth more than a thick folder from three years ago.
Safegen holds each substance as one record, the register entry and the assessment together, and will not let a substance be signed off while its residual risk is still high or its safety data sheet is missing.
