Step 6 – Carry Out Appropriate Health Surveillance

The COSHH regulations requires the employer to carry out health surveillance in the following circumstances:

• Where any employees are exposed to any substance linked to a particular disease or adverse health effect and there is a reasonable likelihood under the conditions of the work of that disease or health effect occurring.
• Where employees are exposed to one of the hazardous substances and is working in one of the related processes, e.g. manufacturing of certain compounds of benzene and there is a likelihood of disease or adverse health effect occurring.

Health surveillance might involve examination by a doctor or trained nurse. It is the employers’ duty to legally keep a simple health record of any health surveillance that has been carried out on employees. A legal requirement of COSHH is that health records must be kept for at least 40 years