COSH Assessment (Enotonx & Oxygen) ????

[Guest guest]

A query was raised about the need for a COSHH assessment for medical

oxygen or Entonox, what are your thoughts on this.

Cheers

[Guest guest]

If you contact the manufacturers, they will provide one, for you. Funnily

enough I have just had to do this for our ambulances

Cheers

Rod

COSH Assessment (Enotonx & Oxygen) ????

>A query was raised about the need for a COSHH assessment for medical

> oxygen or Entonox, what are your thoughts on this.

>

> Cheers

>

>

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[Guest guest]

Depends on just how anal retentitive you need to be and this can open a whole

can of worms. You could end up with a COSHH assessment that is about 50 pages

long :-)

What kind of environment is it being used in?

Maybe there will need to be some considerations if you are using it in a high

spark/ heat potential environment.

Storage considerations would be my main concern here. Amazes me how many times

I see gas cylinders just standing around not secured. Also, any nitrous not

locked away will be emptied.

Also check with your flight operator about concessions for transport of

O2/Entonox during medivac flights. They may just send out a normal chopper for a

pt so they need to make sure that is all squared away. Good idea to ask them

about Defibs/ Propaqs etc.

Entonox is fine as long as your first aider administering it is not affected.

This can happen if it vents straight into the face of the first aider. Good idea

to rotate them or ensure good ventilation in smaller sickbays. Trust me, been

there, had that happen. Funny in hindsight. He was grinning like the proverbial

cheshire cat. Cannot be used in diving of course, and 02 can cause toxicity

above 2.4 ATA or 14 metres depth in a chamber. A consideration for your

procedures and general awareness if you have a dive boat around your

platform/field.

Whilst we are on that, no flying above 500m for dive casualties (Or that is

what I have always been told)

A real bugger there. I can see both sides of the argument and they both have

some validity. We make them do it for everything else onboard so may be a good

idea to lead by example regradless fof your personal thoughts??

And here's me thinking all mine were done :-)

Mick

Just my two cents

Mick

richiesykes2000 <richiesykes2000@...> wrote:

A query was raised about the need for a COSHH assessment for medical

oxygen or Entonox, what are your thoughts on this.

Cheers

Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.

[Guest guest]

Mick

Would this not be 'risk assessment' as opposed to COSHH?

The COSHH bit would be part of the risk assessment?

Rod

Re: COSH Assessment (Enotonx & Oxygen) ????

>

> Depends on just how anal retentitive you need to be and this can open a

> whole can of worms. You could end up with a COSHH assessment that is about

> 50 pages long :-)

> What kind of environment is it being used in?

> Maybe there will need to be some considerations if you are using it in a

> high spark/ heat potential environment.

[Guest guest]

Depends in what environment and what types of injry it's being used for.

Control of Substances Hazardous to Health.

Is there an appreciable health hazard form them being used? If not, then no

full assessment probably required, but log down somewhere you considered it.

Manufacturer will supply you with a MSDS sheet, which is only a constituent

of, not a full, CoSHH assessmnet.

As Rod says, have it as a part of your RA encompassing gas stocks wherever you

are.

2p worth.

Rod Eglin <rod@...> wrote:

Mick

Would this not be 'risk assessment' as opposed to COSHH?

The COSHH bit would be part of the risk assessment?

Rod

Re: COSH Assessment (Enotonx & Oxygen) ????

>

> Depends on just how anal retentitive you need to be and this can open a

> whole can of worms. You could end up with a COSHH assessment that is about

> 50 pages long :-)

> What kind of environment is it being used in?

> Maybe there will need to be some considerations if you are using it in a

> high spark/ heat potential environment.

---------------------------------

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[Guest guest]

Mick

Check out the following link to an acrobat document, which may give some

pointers

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/medicalschool/msa/safety/docs/coshhcop.pdf.

It includes the following paragraph..

'Medical and dental treatments in terms of effects on patients are not

covered by the

COSHH Regulations. However, the preparation, dispensing and use drugs for

experimental purposes are covered. Also, there are requirements to limit

the exposure of

staff to certain anaesthetic gases.'

There is a reference to the following document

Anaesthetic agents. Controlling exposure under COSHH, HSAC, 1995, HSE

Books.

As medical Oxygen is classified as a medicine/drug it probably isn't

covered by the COSHH regulations, although you would probably still need

to undertake a risk assessment, as Rod has said, for storage &

transportation matters.

Colin

Rod Eglin wrote:

>

> Mick

> Would this not be 'risk assessment' as opposed to COSHH?

>

> The COSHH bit would be part of the risk assessment?

>

> Rod

>

> Re: COSH Assessment (Enotonx & Oxygen) ????

>

> >

> > Depends on just how anal retentitive you need to be and this can open a

> > whole can of worms. You could end up with a COSHH assessment that is

> about

> > 50 pages long :-)

> > What kind of environment is it being used in?

> > Maybe there will need to be some considerations if you are using it

> in a

> > high spark/ heat potential environment.

>

>

[Guest guest]

In other cmpanies yes. The company I work for now has a COSHH assessmment for

each task rather than just the product.

Rod Eglin <rod@...> wrote: Mick

Would this not be 'risk assessment' as opposed to COSHH?

The COSHH bit would be part of the risk assessment?

Rod

Re: COSH Assessment (Enotonx & Oxygen) ????

>

> Depends on just how anal retentitive you need to be and this can open a

> whole can of worms. You could end up with a COSHH assessment that is about

> 50 pages long :-)

> What kind of environment is it being used in?

> Maybe there will need to be some considerations if you are using it in a

> high spark/ heat potential environment.

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[Guest guest]

Contact me at rudyvdenten@... for a possible sufficient Policy/procedure on

Entonox as used in the NHS

COSH Assessment (Enotonx & Oxygen) ????

A query was raised about the need for a COSHH assessment for medical

oxygen or Entonox, what are your thoughts on this.

Cheers

___________________________________________________________

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http://uk.messenger.

[Guest guest]

----- Original Message -----

From: " Colin Marshall " <colin@...>

> As medical Oxygen is classified as a medicine/drug it probably isn't

> covered by the COSHH regulations, although you would probably still need

> to undertake a risk assessment, as Rod has said, for storage &

> transportation matters.

A good document is that, Colin.

One of the problems I found with this COSHH business is that you end up

re-inventing the wheel.

What we did was get all the COSHH info from the firm that supplies the stuff

and then do a risk assessment based on it's use. One problem is that people

try to do an assessment for every single area that they work in. It is

un-necessary if you do a generic COSHH assessment for say,

'Nitronox/Entanox'. and then apply the safety measures to it's use in

confined spaces if you need to (say, if you are assessing rescue from a

confined space for a particular job) but not every single confined space on

planet Earth. Then you cover that by either removing the risk, training or

as a last resort, if the risk can't be removed, PPE.

(if that makes sense?)