This guidance provides laboratory chemists with the basic knowledge and practical advice needed to carry out a COSHH assessment.

Welcome to the university laboratory health and safety learning resource. This COSHH resource is a prototype that has been compiled with a view to improving safe practice in university chemistry laboratories. Its purpose is to give the user community, Health and Safety Advisers, Principal Investigators, Postgraduate Students and those who may work in university chemistry laboratories, an opportunity to contribute to its development and to ensure that it meets your requirements.        

It was compiled from material from Royal Society of Chemistry, Health and Safety Executive Guidance, The UK University Chemical Safety Forum, and Health & Safety practitioners in higher education.   

Please let us know what you think needs to be done to it to improve the usefulness of this resource so that it better meets your needs. Your comments and recommendations will help us rework the modules.       

Please can you submit your comments and recommendations, by emailing us at ehsc@rsc.org.      

Disclaimer: The advice given has been carefully formulated, and it is provided as part of this online resource for information only. Whilst the RSC makes every attempt to ensure its accuracy and reliability, it should not be relied on as a substitute for formal legal advice from your own officers, legal representatives or regulators. The RSC accepts no responsibility for any errors or omissions, or liability from any special, incidental, indirect or consequential damage or loss of any kind whatsoever from use of this information.