What are COSHH regulations and DSEAR? Why you may need a dust extraction system

Explore what COSHH regulations and DSEAR are

Learn how to ensure your facility is compliant with regulations

Find out about dust extraction systems

Manufacturers in the UK are governed by key regulations, including Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH) and Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002 (DSEAR), which are fundamental to ensuring a safe working environment.

These regulations are in place to protect employees from health risks from potentially hazardous substances including dusts and fumes, which are present in many sectors of the manufacturing industry, ranging from food, to pharmaceuticals, to automotives.

To help you learn how to keep your manufacturing facility compliant with both COSHH and DSEAR regulations, we’ve broken down the basics of the legislation, and why you may need to have a dust extraction system installed.

What are COSHH regulations?

Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations, or COSHH, is a law which requires employers to ensure the control of ‘substances that are hazardous to health’ within the workplace.

These substances include dusts, fumes, and vapours, as well as chemicals, gases, and germs, which can cause hazards to health, entailing anything from stinging eyes to lung disease.

The first step of making sure your factory is compliant with legislation, is to undertake a COSHH risk assessment.

What is a COSHH risk assessment?

A COSHH risk assessment focuses on the risks arising from hazardous substances in your workplace, and how workers may be harmed.

As part of the assessment, you have to think about things such as:

The type of substances your production processes are generating

How workers may be exposed to the substances, for example, if they’re breathed in

The level of exposure workers have to the substances

What you’re already doing to control the risks

Further action you need to undertake to control the risks

For example, in the pharmaceutical industry, production processes such as tablet pressing and blending involve handling granular ingredients, which generate dust that can then both harm the workers and contaminate the production line.

Once you’ve identified which harmful substances are present, and how your employees could be harmed, it’s time to start thinking about preventing exposure.

Keep reading to learn how to ensure your facility can stay compliant with regulations and protect its staff.

What is DSEAR?

Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002 (DSEAR) requires employers to control the risks to safety resulting from substances which could cause fire, explosions, and corrosion to metals. These substances include solvents, paints, and dusts from machining and foodstuffs.

Similar to COSHH regulations, DSEAR requires employers to find out which dangerous substances are in their workplace and what the risks are, and put measures in place to remove or control those risks.

It also requires employers to prepare plans and procedures to deal with potential incidents and ensure employees are properly informed and trained to deal with risks, as well as identify areas of their facilities where explosive atmospheres may occur.

In the food industry, processes like weighing, mixing, and sieving use handled ingredients like flour, flavoured powder, and fine spices, which can generate potentially combustible dust clouds. When ignited, these particles can burn fast, leading to sometimes disastrous consequences.

Complying with COSHH and DSEAR

Whether you’re in the food industry, pharmaceutical industry, or any other manufacturing sector, if your production process generates dust, it’s imperative you install a dust extraction system.

Dust extraction systems help you to stay compliant with both COSHH regulations and DSEAR by extracting airborne dust at source, preventing employees being exposed to the potentially harmful substances.

When installed, a Local Exhaust Ventilation (LEV) system will collect air containing contaminants, and safely get rid of them, ensuring workers are breathing in clean air.

These systems aren’t a one size fits all approach however – it’s important you work with trained engineers to properly assess the requirements you need for your workplace, focusing on the types of dust your manufacturing process generates, and the dangers posed as a result.

At APS, we have over thirty years of experience in implementing high quality LEV systems, helping businesses ranging from confectionary manufacturers to plastic packaging manufacturers to tackle the risks arising from the generation of dust in their production processes.

We’ll develop a bespoke dust extraction system suited to your factory and its processes, so that you can significantly reduce your employees’ exposure to harmful substances, and in turn, comply with COSHH regulations and DSEAR.

Our ‘Competent and Trained’ engineers will work with you to not only install an LEV system, but set up a plan to regularly examine and service your system, so you remain compliant with regulations now and into the future.

If you’re ready to learn how we can help you keep your employees’ health and safety at the forefront of your work, get in touch with our expert team today.