Chemicals: HSC takes CLAW to COSHH
Many of the Directive's provisions are already covered by the existing COSHH, CLAW and Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations, which establish similar control regimes. But the Directive also contains some specific requirements that are only implicit in the existing Regulations and that now must be made explicit in UK legislation.
Areas in COSHH and CLAW where an employer's duty will be made more explicit include: the carrying out of risk assessments; preventing or controlling exposure; monitoring exposure; placing employees under health surveillance; and providing information, instruction and training.
In some circumstances, employers will be required to draw up detailed procedures for dealing with incidents and emergencies that involve hazardous substances. Although there are numerous proposed changes to both sets of Regulations, many employers should, to a large extent, already be carrying out the new duties.
The HSC also plans to make changes to the biological agents provisions set out in COSHH to raise awareness of the situations in which exposure to biological agents should be considered. An HSE evaluation of COSHH found that duty holders felt that these provisions only related to intentional work with biological agents in laboratories, and that they were too difficult to apply in general workplaces where there may be incidental exposure to agents such as in farms or sewage works.
To make it clear that COSHH applies to chemical and biological agents, the HSC proposes to move the general COSHH duties that relate to all biological agents, such as incidental and intentional exposure that may occur in many types of workplace, from a schedule at the end of COSHH into the main body of the Regulations. The additional special measures to control the risk of exposure when deliberately working with biological agents will remain in the revised Schedule 3 of COSHH.
The proposed changes to the Regulations will mean the COSHH and CLAW Approved Codes of Practice (ACoP) will need to be revised. The HSC proposes to delete the word "General" from the title of the main ACoP and to incorporate the other three ACoPs - on carcinogens, vinyl chloride and biological agents, as appendices in a single COSHH ACoP. Much of the former general COSHH ACoP text will now change to supporting guidance.
The HSC is also proposing to introduce a more stringent maximum exposure limit for vinyl chloride to implement a requirement of the second amendment to Directive 90/394/EEC on carcinogens.
1"Proposals for implementing the chemical agents Directive (98/24/EC) with new Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations and Control of Lead at Work Regulations", CD 173, HSE Books or www.open.gov.uk/hse/condocs/. Comments: Mike Reeves, HSE Health Directorate, Chemicals Policy Division, Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge, London SE1 9HS. Tel: 020 7717 6259, by 21 Jan, 2002.
SAFETY REPRESENTATIVES
Managers who fail to heed warnings of safety failures may be served with a "notice" by a union safety representative in the near future.
The TUC-backed "union improvement notice" (UIN)1 constitutes a final written warning to managers of the need for action. Failure to comply will result in the safety rep asking the enforcement agency to intervene.
The scheme is based on the statutory system of "provisional improvement notices" (PINs) used in some Australian states (Underpinning safety reps: benefits or bureaucracy?). TUC senior policy officer and HSC commissioner Owen Tudor said "British trade unions have been campaigning for Australian-style, union-issued PINs for years, but when the HSC put the idea in a discussion document two years ago, employers said 'no'." Tudor reiterates, however that the TUC wants a PINs system for the UK "at a later stage".
The TUC has meanwhile reworked the idea by dividing the PINs demand into three components:
The TUC believes the advantage a UIN has over the current way its reps work is that it is a written complaint rather than a verbal, albeit minuted, complaint raised through the safety committee. It also requires the safety representative to follow procedures and provides a "what to do next" path. Early in 2002, the TUC will run UIN training courses and will survey the reps on the value of the notices. "We'll be looking at how many notices are issued, and whether safety reps feel that they have had an impact on safety standards and on employers' attitudes," Tudor said.
The TUC claims it has discussed the idea of UINs in broad terms with both employers and enforcement agencies. Most of the consultation was at a TUC conference on "Revitalising safety reps" in March 2001. "We wanted to keep everyone informed and wanted to take on board comments where we could," Tudor insists, "but we didn't really receive comments as such."
1Model UINs and a pdf of the TUC UINs guide are at: www.hazards.org/notices.
NOTICE DETAILS
A UIN registers the view that the employer is in breach of the law in respect of an identified workplace hazard. It describes the action that should be taken and specifies a date by which action is requested. Before issuing a notice, the safety representative must be convinced that:
