Compliance with the control of substances hazardous to health regulations (COSHH) 1988 and health and safety awareness in hairdressing establishments

Hairdressers are known commonly to suffer work-related skin problems. To explore the steps taken by employers and employees to prevent or control such problems, we visited 12 randomly selected high street hairdressing establishments in North Wiltshire and interviewed the proprietors and 43 of the employees by means of structured questionnaires. Relatively few of the establishments had taken any steps to comply with the statutory requirements of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 1988. Some premises lacked basic skin care facilities and employers often failed to provide hand care training and health monitoring. More than half of the employees had experienced work-related skin problems, typically dermatitis. Those with skin problems more commonly identified precautionary skin care measures; however, many employees could not identify desirable skin precautions when questioned. A fifth had never received skin care training. For the remainder the median elapsed interval since last trained exceeded 6 years. Only one establishment had a satisfactory skin care programme. Future efforts should be directed at training and influencing the attitudes of hairdressing employers.