Workplace Safety Guide
A practical guide to identifying chemical hazards, assessing the risks, implementing controls, and keeping the records that protect your people and your organisation.
Applicable to all workplaces globally — Updated February 2026
Hazardous substances are found in almost every workplace — from cleaning products in offices to solvents in manufacturing, pesticides in agriculture, and fumes in welding shops. The Health and Safety Executive estimates that over 13,000 deaths a year in Great Britain are linked to occupational lung disease and cancers caused by past work exposures to chemicals.
The legal framework varies by country — COSHH in the UK, OSHA HazCom in the USA, WHS in Australia, and similar regulations in most jurisdictions — but the underlying approach is the same: identify the hazard, assess the risk, put controls in place, and monitor their effectiveness.
Getting this right protects workers from acute and chronic harm, reduces your liability exposure, and demonstrates the due diligence that regulators and insurers expect.
Understanding the category of hazard is the starting point for risk assessment.
Substances that can cause serious harm or death at relatively small doses (e.g., carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide).
Substances that destroy living tissue on contact, including strong acids and alkalis (e.g., sulphuric acid, sodium hydroxide).
Substances that can ignite or explode (e.g., solvents, aerosols, flammable gases, reactive metals).
Substances that cause skin, eye, or respiratory irritation or that can trigger long-term allergic reactions (e.g., isocyanates, epoxy resins).
Substances that cause or contribute to cancer or genetic damage (e.g., benzene, silica dust, asbestos).
Substances harmful to aquatic life or ecosystems, subject to strict storage and disposal requirements.
Many substances present multiple hazards. Isocyanates, for example, are both toxic and sensitisers. Your assessment must address all hazard categories associated with each substance.
A Safety Data Sheet (SDS) — previously called a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) — is the primary technical document for a hazardous substance. Suppliers of hazardous substances are legally required to provide one. The format is standardised globally under the GHS (Globally Harmonised System), meaning every SDS has the same 16 sections regardless of where it was produced.
Formulations change. An SDS that is 5 years old may not reflect the current hazard classification or exposure limits. Request updated SDS from suppliers periodically — at minimum every 3 years — and whenever there is a change to the substance or regulations.
The GHS label on a container gives immediate hazard information at a glance. The SDS provides the detailed technical information needed to assess the risk and choose appropriate controls. Both are required — the label for day-to-day identification, the SDS for risk assessment and emergency response.
A hazardous substance assessment documents the risks from using a substance in a specific task and the controls in place to reduce those risks. It must be suitable and sufficient — a phrase used by regulators to mean it genuinely reflects the actual risk, not a generic or template document that hasn't been adapted to your workplace.
Name, SDS reference, location used, quantities typically present.
Direct users, workers in adjacent areas, cleaners, maintenance staff, visitors, contractors.
Inhalation (vapours, dust, mist, fumes), skin/eye contact, ingestion, injection.
Consider frequency and duration of exposure, concentration, task characteristics, and existing controls.
Apply the control hierarchy — see below. Compare with Workplace Exposure Limits (WELs) or Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs) where applicable.
Document the assessment. Review when the substance, task, or controls change — or at least annually.
Single substances vs. mixtures: Assessments can cover a single hazardous substance or a group of similar substances used in the same way (e.g., all water-based cleaning products used by the cleaning team). Where substances are used together or in sequence, consider combined or cumulative exposure effects.
Controls should be applied in order of effectiveness. PPE alone is rarely sufficient — it's a last resort, not a substitute for engineering or process controls.
Remove the hazardous substance entirely — can the process be redesigned to avoid it?
Replace with a less hazardous substance or form (e.g., water-based instead of solvent-based).
Enclose the process, use local exhaust ventilation, or automate to reduce exposure.
Job rotation, reduced exposure time, permits to work, restricted access.
Respiratory protection, gloves, goggles, chemical-resistant clothing as a last line of defence.
The GHS (Globally Harmonised System) label must include:
Never remove, deface, or obscure a GHS label. Decanted substances must be relabelled.
Workers must receive adequate information, instruction, and training before working with hazardous substances. "Adequate" means genuinely understood, not just a signature on a form. Training should be:
Relevant to the actual substances and tasks the worker performs — not generic.
In a language and format the worker understands, with time for questions.
Record who was trained, on what, by whom, and when — and keep the records.
Repeated when substances, tasks, or controls change, or at defined intervals.
Workers should know: what the substance is, what the hazards are, how to use it safely, what controls are in place and why, what to do in an emergency or spill, and where to find the SDS.
Good records protect your workers and demonstrate compliance to regulators and insurers.
Substance inventory
What hazardous substances are on site, where they are stored, and in what quantities.
Safety Data Sheets
Current SDS for every hazardous substance. Check for updates at least every 3 years or when the formulation changes.
Hazardous substance assessments
Written assessment of the risks and controls for each substance or group of substances used in a task.
Exposure monitoring records
Atmospheric monitoring results where WELs or OELs may be approached. Keep for 5 years (40 years for carcinogens).
Health surveillance records
For workers exposed to substances requiring health surveillance. Keep for 40 years after last entry.
Training records
Evidence that workers have received adequate information, instruction, and training on the substances they use.
Incident and near-miss records
Chemical spills, releases, exposures, and near-misses, including corrective actions taken.
EHS Genesis Chemical Management gives you a central register of hazardous substances, SDS version control, linked hazardous substance assessments, and training records — all connected to your incident data.