A ready-to-deliver toolbox talk for foremen and supervisors. 8-10 minute spoken script plus briefing register for operative sign-in.
COSHH stands for the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health, and on site that covers a lot more than people think, dusts, fumes, gases, glues, fuels, resins, cleaning chemicals, cement, the lot. This talk covers what counts, how these substances get into you, and how we control them so nobody ends up with damaged lungs, skin or worse years down the line.
Hazardous substances harm far more construction workers over time than accidents do, but slowly, so people don't take it as seriously. Dusts and fumes cause lung disease and cancers that show up years later, chemicals burn and sensitise skin, and some cause asthma you never recover from. The damage is usually done long before you feel anything, which is exactly why we control it now rather than wait.
Spoken script for the supervisor. Read or paraphrase, in order.
It's not just labelled chemicals. It's dusts like silica, wood and cement, fumes from welding and exhausts, vapours and solvents, glues and resins, fuels, paints, cleaning products, even some biological stuff. If it can harm your health and it isn't asbestos, lead or radiation, which have their own rules, COSHH covers it. On a normal site you're surrounded by the stuff, you just stop noticing it.
Four ways. Breathing it in, that's the big one, dust and fumes. Through the skin or eyes, solvents, cement, resins. Swallowing it, usually hand to mouth from eating with dirty hands. And injection, which is rare but happens with high-pressure gear. Most of the harm is breathing and skin, and that's exactly why hygiene and the right mask matter so much.
Every hazardous product has a safety data sheet and hazard pictograms on the label, those orange and red diamonds. Before anything new gets used, someone should have done a COSHH assessment for it, and you should know what it is and how to use it safely. If there's no assessment and you don't know what it is, don't just crack on, come and ask. Guessing with chemicals is how people get hurt.
First choice is not using the harmful stuff at all, or swapping it for something safer. Then engineering controls, extraction, water suppression on dust, decent ventilation. Masks and gloves are the last line, not the first, because they only work if they're the right type, worn properly and looked after. A flimsy paper nuisance mask does next to nothing against fine dust, so don't kid yourself it's protecting you.
The mask has to match the hazard, a dust mask is useless against solvent vapour, you need the right filter for the job. And a tight-fitting mask only works if it seals to your face, which means it's been face-fit tested and you're clean shaven where it seals. A beard and a tight mask don't mix, the gap just lets the bad stuff straight in past the filter, so you might as well not bother.
Keep substances in their proper labelled containers, stored the way the sheet says, away from heat or anything they react with. Never decant a chemical into an unlabelled bottle or, the classic one, an old drinks bottle, because that's exactly how someone ends up swallowing something that burns their throat. If a container isn't labelled, you don't know what's in it, so it doesn't get used.
Wash your hands before you eat, drink or smoke, and don't eat in the work area. Learn the early warnings, a cough that won't shift, skin rashes and cracking, headaches, getting short of breath, and report them early. Occupational asthma and dermatitis can finish your career, and the sooner it's caught the better the outcome. If you feel rough after using something, tell me, don't just push through it.
What the supervisor should be actively spotting on walk-arounds.
Ask one or two of these at the end. Confirms attention more than a silent nod.
A toolbox talk is generic by design. It works on every site. Your RAMS isn't. Briefkit writes a site-specific RAMS for your actual job: the hazards, sequence, PPE, competencies and emergency arrangements that apply to this work, at this address, by this team. £30 per document.
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