A chemical exposure assessment looks at one substance where it is actually used and asks four questions: what harm can it do, how could it reach the people doing the work, what is stopping it, and is that enough. In Great Britain this is the COSHH assessment the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations require; elsewhere it goes by chemical risk assessment or exposure assessment, and the method is the same. This template takes the hazards from the safety data sheet, records the task and the people, and asks about every control in turn, so a control that is needed but missing shows up as a finding rather than an unticked box. You can fill it in here and download a finished PDF without creating an account.
Assess the task, not just the tin
A safety data sheet tells you what a product can do. It does not tell you whether the cleaner on the night shift decants it in a cupboard with no window, or whether the fitter sprays it overhead for three hours. The same bottle can be low risk in one job and high risk in another, which is why an assessment names the task, the place, how much is used, how long the job takes and how often it is done.
Remember substances nobody bought. Welding fume, wood dust, silica from cutting concrete, solvent vapour from a curing coating and exhaust from engines are all made by the work itself. They have no data sheet in the folder, and they are behind a large share of occupational lung disease.
Read the data sheet in the right order
Section 2 of the safety data sheet gives the hazard pictograms and the H-statements — "H334 may cause allergy or asthma symptoms if inhaled" is the kind of line that changes an assessment. Section 8 gives exposure limits and the protective equipment the supplier recommends, including the glove material. Section 7 covers storage, and sections 5 and 6 cover fire and spills.
Check the revision date. Suppliers update sheets when classifications change, and an assessment built on a sheet from ten years ago may be missing a hazard that has since been added.
Controls in the right order
The hierarchy runs from the controls that remove the hazard to the ones that rely on people doing the right thing every time. Work down it and record why each step was or was not taken:
- Eliminate — can the job be done without the substance at all?
- Substitute — a less hazardous product, or a less hazardous form, such as a paste instead of a powder or a brush instead of a spray.
- Enclose or extract — closed systems, and local exhaust ventilation that captures the contaminant at its source.
- Reduce — fewer people, shorter time, smaller quantities, general ventilation, wet cutting, good hygiene.
- Protect — gloves, eye protection and respiratory protective equipment, which only work when they are the right type, fitted, maintained and worn.
What makes the form a finding
Every control on this form is answered as in place and working, in place but needing attention, needed but not in place, or not needed for this task. The middle two are what the assessment exists to catch: they appear in the summary at the top of the report and come back as a checklist if you re-inspect.
Speak while you walk, and the document writes itself: read the product name and the H-statements off the label, describe the task as the worker shows it to you, and photograph the label, the extraction and the store.
When to review it
Review the assessment on the date you set, and sooner if the product, the quantity or the process changes, if monitoring or health surveillance shows a problem, or if someone reports symptoms. An assessment is only as current as the task it describes.
Common questions
Is this the same as a COSHH assessment?
Yes, in Great Britain. The regulations ask employers to assess the risk from hazardous substances, decide the precautions, put controls in place, and review them. This form records all of that. Outside Great Britain the same document is usually called a chemical risk or exposure assessment.
Do I need one assessment per product?
Usually one per substance per task. If several products are used the same way with the same controls — a range of similar cleaning chemicals, for example — many employers group them on one assessment and list every product. A process that creates a substance, like cutting stone, gets its own.
Is the safety data sheet enough on its own?
No. The data sheet describes the product; the assessment describes how your people use it. It is the starting point, not the answer.
When is health surveillance needed?
When a substance has a known health effect that can be detected early, the work makes that effect reasonably likely, and there is a valid way to check for it. Common examples are skin checks for people who handle sensitisers, and lung function tests for people exposed to substances that cause asthma.
Who should carry out the assessment?
Someone competent — who understands the hazards, the work and the controls — and who talks to the people doing the job. They usually know where the splashes go and which extraction is never switched on.