involve:An assessment of the risks to health arising from the use of hazardous substances at work and deciding what precautions are needed, preventing or adequately controlling exposure, ensuring that control measures are used, maintained, examined and tested, monitoring exposure and carrying out health surveillance and ensuring that employees are properly informed, trained and supervised. The Assessment "Suitable and sufficient" assessment includes determining the hazardous substances that are to be encountered, assessing the risks they present to health, calculating the quantity the duration and how frequently the substances are used, how hazardous they are and what the exposure routes and finally deciding on the action needed to prevent exposure or to reduce it as far as is reasonably practicable. This will also include the actions to be taken in an Emergency, to clear up any spills and to safely dispose of any residues. Except for the most trivial cases, the conclusions of this assessment must be recorded, made readily accessible and reviewed regularly. Preventing or Controlling Exposure Employers must ensure that the exposure of employees to hazardous substances is either prevented (i.e. no exposure) or adequately controlled. If it is reasonably practicable, exposure must be prevented by changing the process or activity so that the hazardous substance is not required or generated, or replacing it with a safer alternative (especially important if the substance is a carcinogen), or using it in a safer form. If prevention is not reasonably practicable, exposure must be adequately controlled by one or more of the measures outlined in the Regulations e.g. total enclosure of the process, suitable ventilation etc. (If total enclosure is not practicable for a carcinogen then all the other methods of control mentioned in the Regulations must be used.) Adequate control of volatile or airborne substances can be assessed by reference to ...
