COSHH in Practice Quiz – Assess, Control & Avoid Common Mistakes
A practical guide to running COSHH on the shop floor, built from the mistakes we see most on industrial sites. Read it, then take the 20-question quiz. Score 14/20 or more and your Certificate of Participation arrives by email.
Most COSHH failures we find on audits are not gaps in knowing the law. They are gaps in doing it: an SDS binder labelled “COSHH file”, an extraction arm parked a metre from the weld, a respirator handed to a bearded welder, an assessment that has not been opened since the day it was signed.
This page uses the UK Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations and HSE guidance as the reference framework, because they set out a clear, proven way to manage chemical health risks. The same practices work just as well on sites in India and the GCC under local factory and OSH rules. The focus here is practical: what to do, what evidence to keep and which mistakes to avoid.
How the Quiz and Certificate Work
- 1. Study this pageSections 1–6 below are the full syllabus, including the formulas.
- 2. Enter your detailsType your name, organization and email exactly as you want them on the certificate.
- 3. Answer 20 questionsPractical, scenario-based questions on COSHH implementation, including 3 short calculations. 1 point each.
- 4. Score 14/20 or moreGet your PDF Certificate of Participation by email. Below 14, you get your score and a link to try again.
1. What COSHH Covers in Practice
COSHH is about health effects of substances at work: breathing them in, skin contact, swallowing them or getting them in the eyes. In practice it covers:
- Chemicals and mixtures that meet the criteria for a health hazard classification, whether or not the label shows it
- Substances with a workplace exposure limit (WEL)
- Biological agents, such as bacteria and moulds in water systems or waste handling
- Dust of any kind once it reaches 10 mg/m³ inhalable dust or 4 mg/m³ respirable dust as an 8-hour time-weighted average, even if the dust has no specific limit
- Process-generated substances: welding fume, wood, flour and silica dust from cutting or grinding, oil mists, vapours from heating, curing or mixing. These are the ones most often missed, because they never arrive with a label or an SDS.
What has its own rules: in the UK, work with lead and work with asbestos is covered by separate regulations, not COSHH. Hazards that are only flammable, explosive or radioactive are also handled by other rules; COSHH deals with the health effects.
Practical tip: build the inventory by walking the process, task by task, not by listing what is in the chemical store.
2. The Practical COSHH Workflow
| Step | What to do | Evidence an auditor expects |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Inventory | List every substance by task, including process-generated ones. | Chemical register linked to areas and tasks |
| 2. Gather information | Use the SDS (hazards, exposure controls, toxicology) and any WEL. The SDS is an input, not the assessment. | Current SDS for each product, reviewed |
| 3. Assess real tasks | Who is exposed, by which route, how much, how often and for how long, including maintenance, cleaning and breakdown work. | Task-based assessment, not product-based |
| 4. Choose controls | Follow the order: eliminate or substitute first → enclose, engineer, extract at source (LEV) → fewer people, shorter time, good hygiene → PPE and RPE last, in addition. | Controls justified against the hierarchy |
| 5. Keep controls working | Pre-use checks, LEV examination and test, RPE inspection and fit testing. | Checklists, test reports, fit test records |
| 6. Monitor | Air monitoring where needed to confirm control; health surveillance where a disease is reasonably likely. | Monitoring reports, health records |
| 7. Train and prepare | Train people on the hazards, controls, PPE use and spill and emergency response. | Training records, spill kits, drills |
| 8. Record and review | With 5 or more employees, record the significant findings. Review regularly and immediately after a process change, a poor monitoring result, a health finding or whenever it may no longer be valid. | Signed, dated, reviewed assessments |
Substitution done right: a “safer” substitute can bring new or greater risks, such as higher volatility, flammability or skin sensitisation. Check its SDS, trial it, and update the assessment before full use.
3. 15 Common COSHH Mistakes Chemical Safety Engineers Make
| Mistake | Why it fails | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Treating the SDS binder as the COSHH assessment | An SDS describes the product, not your task, your exposure or your controls. | A task-based assessment that uses the SDS as an input and ends with actions and owners. |
| Inventory taken from the chemical store only | Process-generated substances never arrive with a label or an SDS. | Walk the process: welding fume, wood, flour or silica dust, mists, vapours from heating or curing. |
| Assessing normal production only | Maintenance, cleaning and breakdown tasks often give the highest exposure. | Separate entries for tank cleaning, filter changes, line breaking and spill clean-up. |
| Jumping straight to PPE | RPE and gloves are the least reliable controls and depend on every worker, every time. | Ask first: can the task or substance be eliminated or substituted? Then enclose, extract, reduce people and time, and add PPE last, in addition. |
| Substituting without re-assessing | A 'safer' solvent can be more volatile, flammable or sensitising. | Check the substitute's SDS and hazards, trial it and update the assessment. |
| LEV installed and forgotten | Airflow falls as filters block, ducts leak and arms are moved. | Thorough examination and test at least every 14 months, pre-use checks and an airflow indicator. |
| Capture hood too far from the source | Capture falls off rapidly with distance; an arm 1 m away captures almost nothing. | Position the hood close to the source and train operators to move it with the work. |
| No way to see if extraction is working | Operators cannot judge airflow by sound or by a ribbon (tell-tales are not effective). | Fit an airflow indicator such as a manometer with a marked safe range. |
| Masks issued without fit testing | A tight-fitting mask that leaks gives little protection. | Fit test at selection, for each make, model and size, by a competent tester. |
| Tight-fitting masks on bearded or stubbled faces | Facial hair stops the mask sealing. | Clean-shaven for tight-fitting RPE, or RPE that does not rely on a face seal, such as a powered hood. |
| Generic assessments copied between sites | Quantities, ventilation and tasks differ, so the risk differs. | Use templates, but assess each site's real conditions. |
| Never reviewing the assessment | Processes, products and people change. | Review regularly, and immediately after a process change, a poor monitoring result or a health finding. |
| Comparing exposure to the limit for carcinogens or sensitisers | For these, being below the limit is not enough. | Reduce exposure as low as reasonably practicable. |
| Health surveillance missing where it matters | Early signs of asthma or dermatitis go unnoticed. | Surveillance where an identifiable disease is reasonably likely, e.g. isocyanate sprayers. |
| Decanting into unlabelled bottles | The next user does not know what is inside or how to handle it. | Approved, labelled secondary containers and a decanting procedure. |
4. LEV and RPE: Practical Checks
Local exhaust ventilation (LEV)
- Hood close to the source; capture falls off rapidly with distance
- Airflow indicator (e.g. a manometer) with a marked safe range; ribbons and tell-tales are not effective
- Pre-use checks by the operator: switched on, indicator in range, hood positioned, no damage
- Thorough examination and test at least every 14 months (more often for some processes) by a competent person
- Keep examination records for at least 5 years
- Do not add extra hoods or modify ducts without re-testing
Respiratory protective equipment (RPE)
- RPE is a last resort, used in addition to other controls, never as the only control
- Fit test tight-fitting masks at initial selection, for each make, model and size the person will wear, by a competent fit tester
- Tight-fitting masks need a clean-shaven face; for beards, use RPE that does not rely on a face seal, such as a powered hood
- Choose the right filter for the substance and examine reusable RPE regularly
- Store RPE clean and away from contamination
5. Exposure Limits and the Three Calculations
Workplace exposure limits (WELs) are airborne concentrations averaged over a reference period: usually an 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA) and, for some substances, a 15-minute short-term limit (STEL). For carcinogens (e.g. H350) and respiratory sensitisers (H334), staying below the limit is not enough: exposure must be reduced as low as reasonably practicable.
8-hour TWA = (C1 × T1 + C2 × T2 + …) ÷ 8Periods with no exposure add zero, and you always divide by 8, even if the shift is shorter.
Example: 3 hours at 40 ppm and 1 hour at 100 ppm → (120 + 100) ÷ 8 = 27.5 ppm.
% of WEL = 8-hour TWA ÷ WEL × 100Example: 27.5 ppm against a WEL of 50 ppm = 55%. Many sites treat results above about half of the limit as a prompt to review controls; that is good practice, not a legal figure.
Latest due date = last examination date + 14 monthsExample: last examined 10 May 2026 → due by 10 July 2027 at the latest.
6. Records: What to Keep and for How Long
| Record | Keep |
|---|---|
| COSHH assessment (significant findings) | Written down when you have 5 or more employees; kept current and reviewed |
| LEV and RPE examination and test records | At least 5 years |
| Exposure monitoring | At least 40 years where it shows personal exposure of identifiable employees; otherwise at least 5 years |
| Health surveillance (health records) | At least 40 years from the last entry |
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COSHH & Chemical Safety Support from Himaya Prevention
COSHH works when it is run on the shop floor, not kept in a file. We help sites in India and the GCC assess real tasks, fix controls that do not work and keep people trained, with qualified people on site when you need them.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is this quiz for?
Chemical safety engineers, EHS officers, industrial hygienists, production and maintenance supervisors, and anyone who writes or reviews COSHH or chemical risk assessments.
Is this based on UK law?
It uses the UK COSHH Regulations and HSE guidance as the reference framework. The practices apply to any site; always follow the legal requirements that apply where you work.
Is the quiz free, and what score do I need?
Yes, it is free. Score 14 out of 20 (70%) or more to receive the Certificate of Participation. Below that, you receive your score and a link to try again.
Is this a COSHH assessor qualification?
No. It is an awareness quiz. It is not a training course, a competence assessment or a qualification.
Certificate disclaimer: The quiz and certificate are for awareness and participation only. The certificate is not a qualification, a training certificate, evidence of competence or proof of compliance with any requirement. This page summarises publicly available guidance as of October 2026 and is not legal advice. Quiz and certificate system designed & automated by hsefq.com.
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