Turn a Safety Data Sheet into a COSHH Risk Assessment
Upload a Safety Data Sheet, get a COSHH record, then generate the risk assessment for handling that chemical. Here is how the connected flow works in Paddl, with a worked example.
A Safety Data Sheet tells you how to handle a chemical safely. It is not the same as a risk assessment, and COSHH expects both. Most teams file the Safety Data Sheet and then face a blank form, copying hazards and controls across by hand. Paddl removes that second job.
What COSHH actually asks for
Keeping the Safety Data Sheet on file is a start, but the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations ask you to assess the risk of each substance in the way you actually use it, write down the controls, and make sure staff understand them. That assessment is the document an inspector wants to see, and it is the part that usually gets left undone.
How it works in Paddl
When you upload a Safety Data Sheet, Paddl reads it and builds the COSHH record: hazards, signal word, PPE, first aid, handling, and storage. It then offers to generate the risk assessment for that chemical.
Upload the Safety Data Sheet in the COSHH area, or during onboarding.
Paddl extracts the detail and creates the COSHH record for you to check.
Accept the suggestion to generate a risk assessment, or click Generate risk assessment from the chemical later.
Paddl drafts the assessment from the chemical's hazards, PPE, and handling and storage detail.
Edit anything that does not match how you use the product, then ask staff to read and sign.
A worked example: kitchen sanitiser
Say you take delivery of a new no-rinse sanitiser. You drop its Safety Data Sheet into Paddl. Within a moment you have a COSHH record with the GHS pictograms, the PPE the manufacturer specifies, and the first aid steps. Paddl then drafts a risk assessment covering skin and eye contact, the gloves and eye protection your team should wear, safe dilution and storage, and what to do after a splash. You adjust it to match your kitchen, set a review date, and your staff sign to confirm they have read it.
One chemical or your whole register
Generate an assessment for a single chemical from its page, or create one that covers every chemical on site from the COSHH list. The whole-site option helps when an inspector asks for your overall chemical risk assessment rather than a sheet per product.
You still own the assessment
Paddl gives you a strong first draft, not the final word. A competent person should check the controls match how the chemical is used on your premises, edit anything that is off, and approve it before staff rely on it. Review dates keep it current after a supplier change or a new product.
This is part of how Paddl connects your records. A document you upload does more than sit in a folder. The Safety Data Sheet that builds your COSHH entry also gives you the risk assessment your team signs, so one upload moves two pieces of compliance forward at once.
