An accident, incident or emergency, for the purpose of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (as amended), is ‘any event which causes, or threatens to cause, any employee to be exposed to one or more hazardous substance[s] on a scale, or to an extent, well beyond that associated with normal day-to-day activity’. For example:
- any serious process fire which could give rise to a serious risk to health;
- any serious spillage or flood of a corrosive agent liable to make contact with employees’ skin;
- any failure to contain biological, carcinogenic or mutagenic agents;
- any acute process failure that could lead to a sudden release of chemicals (e.g. an exothermic reaction that results in emission of toxic fumes); or
- any threatened significant exposure over a workplace exposure limit (WEL) (e.g. where the exposure is clearly the result of an unusual, sudden and serious failure of LEV or other controls).
Any emergency plan compiled under the COSHH Regulations should not be completed without reference to any other emergency plans required by other regulations, (e.g. the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 1999 (1999/0743) COMAH), etc.)
Sizing up the problem
Accidents and emergencies vary in size and severity. The first thing you need to do is make a judgement as to whether the worst foreseeable emergency scenario in your premises can be dealt with under your existing prevention and control arrangements, and whether you can quickly restore the situation to normal or will need to have additional emergency arrangements.
If you decide that your existing controls and arrangements cover all reasonably foreseeable accidents and their consequences, then you need take no further action other than record the main points you considered in making your decision.
Making additional arrangements
If you decide there are some foreseeable circumstances that your existing controls and arrangements may not cover, you need to define suitable additional arrangements, proportionate to the risk (e.g. not all incidents will automatically require the evacuation of the workplace). You should put these arrangements in place in association with any external bodies you may use to help you manage the emergencies you have defined.
When specifying the additional arrangements necessary, you should consider:
the identity of the relevant substances present at the workplace, where they are stored, used, processed or produced, and an estimate of the amount in the workplace on an average day;
the foreseeable types of accidents, incidents or emergencies which might occur involving those substances, and the hazards they could present, e.g. failure of controls, spills, uncontrolled releases of vapours, dusts or fumes into the workplace, accidents with machinery transporting substances in the workplace, leaks, or fire.
Consider also where such incidents might occur; what effect they might have; the other areas that might be affected by the incident spreading and any possible repercussions that might be caused;
the special arrangements to deal with an emergency situation not covered by the general procedures and the steps to be taken to mitigate the effects;
the safety equipment and personal protective equipment to be used in the event of an accident, incident or emergency, where it is stored and who is authorised to use it. Judgements about the type of safety equipment and personal protective equipment (including respiratory protective equipment) to be used should be made with regard to the level and type of risk, and a worst case estimate of the likely concentration of a hazardous substance in the air in the workplace; and
whether first aid facilities are sufficient to deal with an incident until the emergency services arrive; where the facilities are located and stored; the likely effects on the workforce of the accident, incident or emergency (e.g. burns, scalds, shock, the effects of smoke inhalation etc.). This is in addition to your duties to provide first aid facilities under the Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations;
the role, responsibilities and authority of the people nominated to manage the accident, incident or emergency and the individuals with specific duties in the event of an incident (e.g. the people responsible for: checking that specific areas have been evacuated; shutting down plant that might otherwise compound the danger; contacting and liaising with the emergency services on their arrival and making sure that they are aware of the hazardous substance(s) that are the cause of or are affected by the emergency);
procedures for employees to follow and to know; how they should respond to an incident and what action they should take; the people who have been assigned specific responsibilities and their roles;
procedures for clearing up and safely disposing of any substance hazardous to health damaged or ‘contaminated’ during the incident;
regular safety drills: the frequency of practising emergency procedures will depend on the complexity of the layout of the workplace, the activities carried out, the level of risk, the size of the workforce, the amount of substances involved and the success of each test; and
the special needs of any disabled employees (e.g. assigning other employees to help them leave the workplace in an emergency).
The extended procedures should be compiled in consultation with safety representatives, employees and with those people assigned roles and responsibilities during any emergency.
You should review, update and replace the emergency procedures in the light of changing circumstances, e.g. a significant increase in the use of a particularly hazardous substance, changes in the workplace activities involving the use of a new substance hazardous to health, etc..
Copies of your emergency arrangements and procedures should be made available to the relevant internal and external accident and emergency services. All the people concerned should be provided with their own copy of the emergency procedures either on paper or electronically, which should be re-issued at least every six months, whether they have changed or not, to ensure that the information they hold is up to date and fresh in their minds.