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Use
WASPS
to Undertake
a COSHH Risk Assessment and Save Results
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Scope:
The
COSHH assessment facility within WASPS follows similar
conventions to
COSHH Essentials produced by the Health
and Safety Executive
(HSE UK).
This system is made as simple as possible for the user, and
as such, it cannot be applied to all materials and
situations. It cannot be used with
gels,
pastes or slurries for example. Lead and asbestos are
covered by specific regulations and are excluded, as are any
materials not covered by the CHIP (Chemicals (Hazard
Information and Packaging for Supply) regulations).
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| Data and Information Requirements
In order to carry out a WASPS/COSHH assessment the following information will be needed (in addition to administrative
information such as date, reference, assessors name etc.)
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a.
A WASPS sheet for each material involved in the process being assessed.
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b.
The name by which the process is known. You will also be asked to select a description of the process from a list, but if an appropriate description is not available ‘Other’ can be selected.
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c. The total daily exposure time in hours and/or minutes for each material (see also Process and Exposure)
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d.
For any materials which are a component of a mixture, the percentage of the mixture made up by that material. (See also Mixtures and Solids with Liquids)
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e.
For a solid material how dusty it is (High, Medium or Low) (see also Dustiness)
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COSHH Results Sheet |
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WASPS Sheet Selection for a COSHH Assessment
Once WASP sheets defining the materials to be used in the assessment are to hand these may be selected from a scrolling list as seen below. Using WASP sheets for assessments in this way enables safety critical data to be captured directly from the sheet - without the user having to re-enter it. Furthermore is is simple to clone and edit WASP sheets so that these may be used in other process-specific assessments.
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Information on the Material Required
For each material the total daily exposure time in hours and minutes is entered. Facilities exist for the entry of mixtures and for the required data for each material type. For a liquid for example, you are required to enter the maximum process temperature applicable to the exposure to that material and its boiling point (or its vapour pressure and corresponding reference temperature).
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WASP
Sheet Selection Dialogue
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Mixtures
Any of the materials used in a process may themselves be a mixture of one or more chemicals which has been created in a separate process. If a safety data sheet or classification data is available for the mixture, then a WASPS sheet can be prepared for the mixture which can be treated as a single material for WASPS/COSHH assessment purposes. However if data is only available for the components of the mixture then a WASPS sheet will be needed for each component to carry
out the assessment and the percentage (by volume or weight) of the
total mixture entered for each component during the assessment
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Solids in Liquids
A material used in a process being assessed may consist of a solid (or more than one solid if it is a mixture) dissolved or suspended in a liquid, the solution or suspension having been created in a separate process.
Please
Note: If a safety data sheet and hence a WASPS sheet is not available for the material then WASPS sheets
must be created for each hazardous component, prior to the COSHH
assessment.
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Double
clicking on the material name opens the appropriate data entry
dialogue as seen below
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A
Typical Data Entry Dialogue
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Volatile Solids
A limited number of solids have an appreciable vapour pressure and exposure by inhalation of the vapour is more likely to be relevant than exposure to dust. WASPS can easily cater for these types of variation.
Volatility
The likelihood of inhaling a liquid hazardous chemical depends on how easily it can get into the air which is determined by how much vapour it produces, its volatility. During a WASPS/COSHH assessment this will be determined from the
maximum process temperature involving the liquid in question, and either its boiling point or its vapour pressure at
a particular reference temperature. The data should be available from the safety data sheet or from other sources.
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and should be entered taking care to make sure that the
units selected for both temperatures and vapour pressure are those quoted by the reference
source.
Units
WASPS allows for entry in data units specified by the data sheet. The default units for the entry of temperatures and vapour pressures are normally set as °C and kPa respectively for liquids and volatile solids but these defaults can be re-set by the user.
Other units can be selected at the time of entry and it does not matter if different units are used for different temperatures. Note also that WASPS uses the default setting for the process and reference temperatures of 25 °C
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The COSHH Results Sheet
The result sheet provides the following information:
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The name of the process which was assessed as entered by the user. |
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A list of the materials identified as being used in the process together with, for each material, the applicable Risk Phrase numbers and the data entered for that material such as quantity used etc. Note that the materials are listed in descending order of the contribution which each material makes to the exposure risks and therefore to the scale of the measures needed to control the risks. Thus when considering what might be done to reduce the risks and hence the investment in control measures it may be helpful to look at the materials in that order, for example alternative materials, smaller quantities, lower temperatures, shorter process times etc.
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The nature of the control measures indicated. This follows the HSE COSHH Essentials terminology, i.e. from General ventilation at the lowest level, through Engineering control and Containment to a Special category which indicates that the risks are such that generalised advice is not adequate and specialist advice should be sought.
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The
number(s) of the HSE COSHH Essentials ‘Control guidance sheets’ which from the information entered are the most relevant to the circumstances of the process. These sheets give advice on appropriate control measures ranging from general advice applicable to the control measure indicated, to more specific advice if the user has identified a particular process type. Access to these sheets is available on the HSE web site or via the live link created by WASPS in each assessment. Try downloading the sample (html) and clicking on the control guidance sheet numbers.
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Administrative details of the assessment, date, reference etc. There is also a facility for the user to enter details of the control measures implemented, the PPE provided, a date for review of the assessment (which can be flagged by the system), and other information about the assessment which the user may consider relevant.
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