What should my employer be doing if I work with substances that cause occupational asthma?

Under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002, your employer has a legal duty to do a risk assessment (see hazards and risks section), decide what precautions they need to take, and then prevent or adequately control your exposure. The Regulations expect employers to use a 'hierarchy of controls', which means that in the first instance your employer should:

• Change the work process to eliminate the chemical.
• Substitute the chemical for a safer one.
• Protect you from exposure to it by enclosing the process.
• Provide adequate ventilation.
• Only then should your employer rely on personal protective equipment to prevent exposure.

An additional part of the Regulations – an Approved Code of Practice (ACoP) on occupational asthma – means that employers must also take specific precautions to protect workers from substances known or suspected to cause the disease.

The ACoP says:

• Employers' risk assessments must take into account how seriously ill you could become if they fail to control exposure to substances that could cause occupational asthma.
• Employers must arrange health surveillance by an occupational health professional for workers exposed, or liable to be exposed, to substances that could cause occupational asthma.
• Employers must have procedures for reacting to new cases of occupational asthma. If a new case is detected, your employer must have planned how to protect the affected worker, review their COSHH risk assessments to find out – and put right – what went wrong, and report the case to the Health and Safety Executive or Local Authority.