Monitoring Duties
Main Duties
The employer must ensure that, where requisite, a suitable procedure is used to monitor the exposure of employees to substances hazardous to health, and, so far as is reasonably practicable, the exposure of other people at the workplace to substances hazardous to health.
Competence
The employer must ensure that monitoring procedures, and determination of monitoring needs, are carried out by competent employees or other competent persons who also need to be familiar with the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations; and sampling techniques and methods of analysis.
Where Monitoring is Required
Unless it is immediately obvious that control of exposure is adequate, then where a suitable procedure for monitoring exists or can be devised it is requisite to fulfil the duty in any of the following cases:
- where failure of deterioration of the control measures could result in a serious health effect because of the nature of the substance and/or extent of potential exposure;
- where measurement is necessary to be sure that exposure falls within any applicable maximum exposure limit, occupational exposure standard or in-house working standard;
- where necessary as an additional check on the effectiveness of any measure to control exposure to a substance or process specified in Schedule 4 of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations;
- where necessary as an additional check on the effectiveness of any measure to control exposure to any other substance hazardous to health.
Where the employer monitors exposure to a substance or process specified in Schedule 4 of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations, he must carry out monitoring at the frequency specified in that Schedule.