Personal safety on offshore facilities addressed in COSHH sheets

Guidance in the form of Control of substances hazardous to health (COSHH) sheets has been created to provide recommendations on how to maintain personal safety standards when working on offshore facilities.

A total of 12 Offshore COSHH Essentials sheets, numbered OCE0 through OCE11, have been issued by the Health and Safety Executive.

They look at personal safety when handling potentially dangerous chemicals in offshore settings.

Managers are told: "The Offshore Essentials sheets are not your risk assessments, but they will help you to assess the risks for named tasks and identify good control practice, as well as reviewing existing control practice."

Issues covered range from relatively simple tasks - like preparing surfaces for painting or applying paint - to more complex and industry-specific practices like chemical injection and the use of drilling muds.

A further Offshore Essentials sheet, OFE1, addresses food safety and hygiene, noting that galleys must be large enough to serve half of the facility's workforce at any one time and visitors to the galley itself must be dressed cleanly and be healthy.