COSHH basics toolbox talk

The point

This talk is about the stuff on site that makes you ill, not the stuff that knocks you over. The dust we cut, the fumes we breathe, the products we open every day - cement, foam, adhesive, paint. COSHH is just the name for keeping that stuff out of your body. Some of it harms you the same day. Most of it harms you slowly, and many of the slow ones cannot be cured once they start. So we control it today, every day.

The hazard, in plain terms

Harmful stuff is not just the drum with a skull on it. It is dusts, fumes, vapours, mists and gases. And it is ordinary products - the bag of cement, the can of expanding foam, the tub of adhesive. It gets into you two main ways. You breathe it in, or it gets on your skin and in your eyes.

Some harm is fast. Wet cement trapped against your skin - inside a boot, inside a glove, soaked through your knees - can turn into a serious burn quickly. Some harm is slow. Fine dust from cutting, grinding and drilling causes asthma, lung disease and cancer. Over five hundred construction workers are believed to die every year from silica dust alone - the dust off concrete, brick and stone. Spraying foam, and some adhesives and paints, can start asthma that never goes away.

The label gives you the first warning. A red diamond means the product can do harm. The safety data sheet that comes with it tells you how, and what to do about it.

What to do

• Check the label before you open anything new. If you see a red diamond, stop and ask what the plan is.
• Ask for the safety data sheet if nobody can tell you what is in a product.
• Use the controls set up for the job - extraction on the tool, lids back on tubs, ventilation running.
• Wash wet cement, and any product, off your skin straight away, not at break time.
• Wear the gloves and mask the task calls for. They are the last line of defence, not the first.
• Tell your supervisor about stinging eyes, sore skin, a cough or a tight chest. Say it early.

What to never do

• Never carry on working with wet cement inside your glove or boot. Get it off and get washed - a serious burn develops fast.
• Never use anything from a container with no label. No label means no warning.
• Never treat the mask as the fix. If dust or fume is filling the air, the job is set up wrong - stop and sort the source.

Questions to ask the crowd

The talk ends in a conversation. These are the ones that start it.

• What are we opening or mixing on this site today, and has anyone read the labels?
• Where does this job make dust, and what is catching that dust before it reaches you?
• Has anyone ever had sore skin, stinging eyes or a wheeze after a task? What was the task, and what would you do differently?