Hazardous Substances in a Care Home – The Top 7 Offenders

What are Hazardous Substances in Care Homes?

Hazardous materials consist of chemicals or substances that could be a physical or health hazard to people, or harm the environment. These could cause direct or indirect harm. Most of these substances will have one or more dangerous properties that you should be aware of, which can include but aren’t limited to toxicity, the ability to oxidise or flammability.

In a health and social care setting, these chemicals can exist in a variety of different forms and may be present in everyday products, for example, disinfectants.

The Top 7 Chemical Hazards in Care Homes

You should brush up on your knowledge and understanding of what products to work carefully within your care service to ensure the safety of you, your team and your service users. The best way to do this is to make sure you’re aware of the main chemical hazards in care homes. Here are the top 7 you should be aware of:

Acids and Caustic Substances

These products are corrosive and can cause serious burns or damage when they come into contact with other items or exposed areas of skin. Acids are often used for infection control in care homes. Whereas, most caustic substances will fall into the cleaning products category, such as bleach, drain unblockers and washing detergents.

Disinfectants

Many chemical disinfectants can cause harm to workers if they’re used or handled unsafely. While a variety of disinfectant types and strengths are widely used throughout care services and even at home, all members of the team should understand exactly how to use them and how to do so without harming themselves or others.

Glues and Solvents

Most household glues aren’t poisonous, but this doesn’t mean that poisoning can’t occur. If someone purposely or accidentally breathes in glue fumes, it could cause them serious harm and damage. Often found in decorating supplies, acetone, white spirit and xylene fall into the category of potentially harmful solvents, so they should be used and handled with care.

Biological Hazards

In a care home, people will be at risk of being exposed to biological hazards. A biological hazard is a biological substance that can affect the health of living organisms. In care, these can include potentially infectious bodily substances, clinical waste, soiled fabrics (clothing, bedding, etc), infectious pathogens and medicines that contain hazardous biological agents.

Paints and Heavy Metals

In the past, paint used to contain harmful chemicals and most of them are much safer these days. However, if you use acrylic colours that contain toxic materials, such as cadmium, cobalt, chromium, manganese and lead, they will be clearly marked on the label. These paints only pose a threat when they’re sanded, large amounts are ingested or if they’re used for airbrushing.

Pesticides

Gardening can be a great way to pass time, keep your service users healthy and a way to encourage them to spend time outdoors. If you are using pesticides to protect your plants, you should make everyone aware of the dangers. Exposure to pesticides can result in eye, nose and throat irritation, central nervous system and kidney damage and it can increase risks of cancer.

Petroleum Products

Unless your care service runs fully off renewable energy, there is a high chance people will come into close contact with petroleum products. Transportation fuels, like petrol and diesel, will be used to power vehicles and in some cases, they can be used for generators or backup generators. Whereas, fuel oils may be used to provide heating and electricity to your building.

What is COSHH in Health and Social Care?

COSHH stands for Control of Substances Hazardous to Health. It’s a law used across businesses that require employers to keep control over substances that may pose a threat to health. Some ways you can reduce or prevent your employees' exposure to hazardous substances are to:

• Find out what the health hazards are.
• Decide how to prevent harm to health via a risk assessment.
• Provide control measures to lower harm to health.
• Make sure these rules are followed.
• Keep all control measures in good working order.
• Provide information, training and instruction for employees and others.
• Provide monitoring and health surveillance where appropriate.
• Have a plan in place for emergencies.

In most cases, businesses will use substances that contain a mixture of chemicals. But some processes can create a hazardous substance that could harm everyone in your care service. They can be in the form of dust, gases, chemicals, vapours, mists or fumes. Hazardous substances will have warnings and symbols on the label to help ensure you handle them with care. The symbols to look out for include: 

• Toxic – This symbol will contain a skull and crossbones and represents chemicals that can cause a lot of damage to a person no matter how big or small the quantity may be.
• Corrosive – This symbol will appear on chemicals that could damage living tissue on contact. The warning symbol shows a chemical spill causing the corrosion of surface material and a hand.
• Health Hazard – Usually represented with an exclamation mark, these products may cause damage to health including respiratory irritation, dizziness or an allergic reaction.
• Serious Health Hazard – The image will show a person with internal damage as serious health hazards can lead to organ damage, infertility, cancer, genetic defects and even death.
• Flammable – Represented as an open flame, flammable chemicals will ignite on contact with air or a small ignition source, or they can create flammable gases when in contact with water.
• Oxidising – This symbol is an open flame over a circle and means that during preparation, these chemicals can lead to a dangerous reaction with other chemicals.
• Dangerous for the Environment – Represented as a tree and a dead fish, these substances should be treated and disposed of with care, as they could cause serious damage to the world.

Why is COSHH Important in Health and Social Care?

COSHH has been put in place in all work environments to manage the risks to health that could be caused by hazardous substances. In health and social care, some care teams will be exposed to more hazardous substances than in other work environments.

COSHH is a crucial piece of legislation that helps to ensure substances are stored safely and that they’re used and disposed of properly. Not only will this help to protect those that use them, but it will also keep the people around them safe and even reduce damage to the environment.

Who is Responsible for COSHH?

The main responsibilities surrounding COSHH sit with the employer of the care service or workplace. They must ensure that all of the relevant control measures are taken and that the appropriate COSHH risk assessments take place when necessary. Employees that work with hazardous chemicals often will be responsible for following the guidance that has been provided to them by their manager.

Complying with COSHH Regulations

A risk assessment is required to ensure compliance with COSHH regulations. These will help you identify all of the substances that are or could become a potential hazard in the workplace, and decide what steps need to be taken to prevent harm. The employer is responsible for protecting their employees and service users from exposure to harmful substances. Whoever carries the COSHH assessment out must:

• Have a full understanding of the legislation and related codes of practice.
• Hold the necessary authority, resources and time to complete the assessment.
• Have access to all of the safety information that’s required to assess risk levels.
• The ability to find relevant product information, assess the workplace and speak to employees.
• Know how to create and produce a risk assessment report and how to action what it entails.

Eliminating COSHH Hazards in Care Homes

A hierarchy of control should be followed to control, reduce or remove COSHH hazards in your care home. This contains six different ways to control risk starting from the most effective to the least effective. You can use this to advise what levels of risk control you should take.

1.      Elimination

Hazardous substances shouldn’t be used in the workplace if it’s possible to do so. This will remove the risk completely, so there will be no need to have health and safety control implemented.

2.      Substitution

If you can’t eliminate the hazardous substances, then you should assess the ones that are used and see if you can find a safer alternative to replace them.

3.      Isolation

If something is hazardous due to the fumes, vapours or dust that it produces and that can be inhaled, then employers should consider using equipment that will keep the substance contained and reduce exposure to those who use it.

4.      Engineering

In cases where a hazardous substance can’t be contained using total isolation, you should think of a process that could be engineered or adapted to minimise exposure.

5.      Administration

Sometimes, exposure risks are minimal. For example, cleaning products could lead to dermatitis. In these cases, you can put administrative measures in place, including health and safety training for employees, putting up warning signs in the workplace and rotating the staff who work with hazardous chemicals to reduce exposure.

6.      PPE

Persona protective equipment (PPE) is a control measure that should always be implemented for those working directly with or around hazardous substances, as it reduces exposure. PPE includes gloves, masks and aprons.

Another thing you must think about is safely storing and containing hazardous substances. These protective measures are essential and must be decided on the COSHH risk assessment, so you can inform your team on where to store these items safely when they’re not in use. Most of these products will come with instructions surrounding storage and you should record these in the COSHH policy. You should also include measures that will stop substances from getting damaged when they’re moved.

COSHH Regulations in Care Homes

Meeting COSHH regulations starts with creating the right policy. Once all of the vital information has been gathered about hazardous substances that are present in the care service, who could be harmed, what harm could be caused and the steps that can be taken to prevent it, you must write everything up as an official COSHH report. This only applies to care services with five or more employees.

The COSHH care home risk assessment will inform the health and safety policy implemented in your service. This must be passed to all of your employees, so they can understand what safety measures they should follow. You must regularly review and update your health and safety policy if any of the following occurs:

• An accident takes place or someone sustains an injury due to a hazardous substance.
• An employee shows concern about risk control measures.
• Processes involving hazardous substances change.
• Official legislation changes.
• Someone reports a problem in your control measures.
• Exposure monitoring shows that risk may be greater than you originally predicted.

Organising Your COSHH Policies and Procedures in Care Homes

While they may contain low levels of harmful substances, chemicals in care homes are extremely common. However, understanding how to handle, use and store them safely is essential for the safety of your team and your service users. Keeping the knowledge of your employees up to date on various chemicals and ensuring they know what to do in emergencies will help you achieve this.

You should consider implementing Access Care Home Policies and Procedures software in your care service. This can be used to manage all of your health and social care policies, procedures, documents and forms, so you can attain and maintain ongoing compliance with your regulator. You can also save time, which you can redirect to focus on safe, effective, compassionate and high-quality care.

Staff can access the policies and procedures they need via a mobile app, so the information they need to keep things safe are never out of reach.

The Access Group has over 30 years of experience digitising businesses across the world. From small care start-ups to international organisations, no task is too big or too small and we take pride in sharing our knowledge, supporting people and guiding care services in the right direction. Our software has been designed by health and social care experts, including former regulators, clinicians and providers.

If you would like to speak to one of our helpful members of the team to learn more about our software, then contact us today. You can also request a demo if you wish to try before you buy.