Using concentrated cleaning products

Concentrated substances

The majority of professional cleaning ranges include at least some products which are marketed as a concentrate for customers to dilute locally. This saves on packaging costs and reduces the amount of storage space needed, so it’s more efficient for all parties. But what should you take into account, from a health and safety perspective?

Hazards increase

If you purchase concentrates, the substances you store may be more hazardous than the pre-diluted version. So, for example, a concentrate might be designated an “Irritant” with a warning sign displayed on the packaging, whereas in diluted form it would be significantly less hazardous and in many cases not warrant any warning at all.

Tip 1. If a substance has a hazard warning label, e.g. harmful, toxic etc. you’re required to carry out a risk assessment under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH). Choosing a low hazard pre-diluted version of a substance, where available, will avoid the need for this.

Tip 2. Where concentrates are employed, make sure that your staff are well trained in their safe use. Some employers only allow supervisors to mix chemicals. This approach minimises the risk to cleaning staff and is especially useful where there is difficulty in keeping training up-to-date, e.g. due to high staff turnover.

Get it labelled

One of the key safety precautions with all chemicals is to make sure that the containers are clearly labelled. But is it enough to simply write the name of the substance on the dilution bottle or do you need to do more? Regulation 12(5) of COSHH makes it clear that once a hazardous substance leaves the supplier’s properly marked container, it becomes the employer’s responsibility to make sure that the substance is “clearly identifiable”.

What does that mean?

Helpfully, the Regulation and the associated guidance tell us what you need to display:

• the name of the hazardous substance
• the form it takes, e.g. liquid, powder etc.
• the hazards the substance could pose if employees were exposed to the contents, e.g. irritation or burns to the skin from spilled liquids.

Tip. Commercial suppliers of these chemicals anticipate that you will be diluting them according to their instructions, so they will almost always supply dilution bottles with the name of the substance on it. This is better than nothing but won’t be enough if the weaker version is still considered “hazardous”. On request, the supplier will usually provide self-adhesive labels to fit to their bottles, detailing all of the hazard information, usage instructions etc. If these are available, make use of them.

Note. Although full labels are not needed in all cases, it’s better to be safe than sorry. That way if the container gets into the hands of an untrained person they’ll have detailed information available and not just the name of the substance.