A substance hazardous to health is a substance or preparation (mixture) with the potential to cause harm if they are inhaled, ingested, or come into contact, or are absorbed through the skin
The COSHH Regulations apply to any substance:
a) which is listed in Table 3.2 of part 3 Annex VI of the CLP Regulation and for which an indication of danger specified for the substance is very toxic, toxic, harmful, corrosive or irritant;
b) for which the Health and Safety Executive has approved a Workplace Exposure Limit
c) Which is a biological agent
d) Which is dust of any kind, except dust which is a substance within paragraph (a) or (b) above, when present at a concentration in air equal to or greater than
10 mg/m3 as a time weighted average over an 8 hour period of inhalable dust or
4mg/m3 as a time weighted average over an 8 hour period of respirable dust
e) Which, not being a substance falling within sub-paragraphs (a) to (d), because of its chemical or toxicological properties and the way it is used or is present at the workplace creates a risk to health
Locking up cleaning chemicals is sensible if vulnerable people such as children or learning-impaired persons are able to gain access to them.
Ventilation of the building – you need good general ventilation, which normally means five to 10 air-changes per hour - talk to a heating and ventilation engineer.
Ventilation of a process, usually called local exhaust ventilation (LEV) means extracting any gas, vapour, fume, mist or gas from a source of airborne contaminant. The rate of extraction depends on the size of the source. The shape of the hood that collects the contaminant cloud depends on the speed and direction of the contaminant cloud. You need to talk to a competent person. See:
Control measures to prevent or limit exposure to hazardous substances
What is COSHH for?
The objective of COSHH is to prevent, or to adequately control, exposure to substances hazardous to health, so as to prevent ill health.
You can do this by: * using control equipment, eg total enclosure, partial enclosure, LEV[1]; * controlling procedures, eg ways of working, supervision and training to reduce exposure, maintenance, examination and testing of control measures; * worker behaviour, making sure employees follow the control measures.
Changing how often a task is undertaken, or when, or reducing the number of employees nearby, can make an improvement to exposure control.
See Working with