What does COSHH stand for? 

COSHH

The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 is a United Kingdom Statutory Instrument which states general requirements imposed on employers to protect employees and other persons from the hazards of substances used at work by risk assessment, control of exposure, health surveillance and incident planning. There are also duties on employees to take care of their own exposure to hazardous substances and prohibitions on the import of certain substances into the European Economic Area. The regulations reenacted, with amendments, the Control of Substances Hazardous to Work Regulations 1999 and implement several European Union directives.Breach of the regulations by an employer or employee is a crime, punishable on summary conviction or on indictment by an unlimited fine. Either an individual or a corporation can be punished and sentencing practice is published by the Sentencing Council. Enforcement is the responsibility of the Health and Safety Executive or in some cases, local authorities. The regulations are complementary to the Chemicals (Hazard Information and Packaging for Supply) Regulations 2002 (CHIPS) and the CLP Regulation which require labelling of hazardous substances by suppliers. There are other regulations concerning the labelling and signage of pipes and containers (Sch.7), and since 2008 a further level of control mechanism on dangerous chemicals was added by the EU regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH).The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) regulations have been in place for more than 25 years and the scientific evidence suggests that over this time industry has, in general, been consistently reducing exposure to hazardous substances.

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