How I Use the Work-Related Contact Dermatitis Template with Customers in Pilla
Dermatitis is the occupational disease that hides in plain sight. I've walked through kitchens, manufacturing floors, and cleaning operations where staff have cracked, red hands and treat it as part of the job. It's not. It's a preventable condition, and once it takes hold, it can force someone out of their role entirely.
The problem is rarely that businesses don't care. It's that they don't assess what's causing the damage, they hand out one type of glove for every task, and nobody teaches staff what the early signs look like. That's the gap this article is for. I'll walk you through what your dermatitis policy needs to cover, give you a ready-made template you can edit for your own operation, and explain the bits that actually matter when an HSE inspector asks how you're protecting your people's skin.
Key Takeaways
- What is work-related contact dermatitis in health and safety? Work-related contact dermatitis is a skin disease caused by damage to the skin's barrier layer through workplace exposure to irritants like cleaning chemicals, wet work, and certain materials. It causes redness, itching, blistering, and cracking, most commonly on the hands, forearms, and face
- Why do you need a dermatitis policy? The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 require employers to assess and control exposure to substances that can cause skin disease. An HSE inspector will check that you've identified the risks and put proper controls in place
- How do you set it up in Pilla? Use the knowledge hub template below, edit it to match your operation, and share it with your team through the app so everyone has access and you can track who's read it
- How do you automate the follow-up? Set up Poppi to chase staff who haven't acknowledged the policy and flag when it's due for review
Article Content
Understanding What's Required of You
Work-related contact dermatitis is a skin disease that develops when the skin's barrier layer is damaged through workplace exposure. It causes redness, itching, swelling, blistering, flaking, and cracking. The hands are the most affected, followed by the forearms and face. In severe cases, it can keep someone off work for weeks or force them to change jobs altogether.
It's one of the most common occupational diseases in the UK, and it hits catering staff, cleaners, hairdressers, and anyone doing regular wet work particularly hard. The HSE estimates that work-related ill health costs more than twice as much as an accident causing injury. Yet most of the cases I see are preventable with straightforward controls that cost very little to put in place.
The legal basis sits across two main pieces of legislation. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 places a general duty on employers to protect the health and welfare of their employees, and that includes skin disease. The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) get more specific: you must assess the risk from substances that can cause harm, put controls in place to prevent or reduce exposure, and monitor the health of employees who remain at risk. If a case of work-related dermatitis is diagnosed, you're required to report it to the HSE under RIDDOR.
An HSE inspector will want to see three things. First, that you've identified which substances and tasks in your operation pose a dermatitis risk. Second, that you've followed the hierarchy of control: avoid contact where possible, then protect the skin where you can't. Third, that you have a system for catching it early, because treatment works best before the condition becomes established. I've sat in on inspections where the employer had gloves available but couldn't explain which chemicals they protected against. That's a gap that gets noticed.
The businesses that get this right treat dermatitis prevention as a COSHH issue, not a first aid issue. They assess products before they're used, they match gloves to substances, they provide moisturiser, and they train staff to check their own hands. The ones that get it wrong hand out latex gloves for everything and wait until someone's skin is cracked and bleeding before they act.
Setting It Up as a Knowledge Hub Entry
I've built a work-related contact dermatitis template in Pilla covering avoidance measures, risk assessment, protective equipment, skin care, staff awareness, self-checking routines, reporting, and health surveillance. It gives you a structured starting point, but you need to edit it to reflect the specific substances and tasks in your operation.
In the knowledge hub, create a new entry and tag it with "Health and Safety System". Use the same tag across all of your health and safety policies so they are grouped together and Poppi can track them as a set. Assign the entry to all teams so that everyone in the business can access it.
The template is designed to be edited, not just filed. Read through every section. Where it says something generic, replace it with what actually happens in your business. If your team doesn't use pre-work barrier creams, delete that bit. If you have a specific skin surveillance schedule, add the frequency. An HSE inspector wants to see that your policy reflects your operation, not that you've copied a generic document.
24. Work-related contact dermatitis
Company Name have a duty protect the welfare, safety and health of our employees as they undertake their daily duties. This includes protecting them from industrial diseases and work-related contact dermatitis.
Work-related contact dermatitis is a skin disease caused by work. It is often called eczema and develops when the skin's barrier layer is damaged. This leads to redness, itching, swelling, blistering, flaking and cracking. The most susceptible parts of the body are the hands, followed by the forearms and face. It can be severe enough to keep you off work or even force you to change jobs.
Contact dermatitis is one of the main causes of ill health for catering staff e.g., chefs, cooks and catering assistants. Work-related ill health can cost more than twice as much as an accident causing the injury.
Company Name will prevent dermatitis by following a few simple measures:
Ensure employees avoid contact with cleaning products, food, and water where possible, e.g., provide utensils for handling food and where appropriate, use a dishwasher rather than washing up by hand.
Conduct a risk assessment of all products that have the potential to cause harm when used, to identify sufficient control measures to reduce exposure and risk of developing health issues like dermatitis.
Provide resources to protect employees' skin. Where necessary, provide gloves for those working with substances that can cause dermatitis and provide moisturiser for their hands to replenish the skin's natural oils.
Ensure staff are made aware of potential skin issues and are instructed to check their hands regularly for the early stages of dermatitis, e.g., itchy, dry, or red skin. If identified by an employee, these symptoms should be reported to a senior member of staff, as treatment is much more effective if dermatitis is caught early.
As part of continuing health surveillance, Responsible Persons will nominate a competent member of staff (or external organisation) to check operatives who are concerned that they may have dermatitis. If appropriate, the employee will be told to seek medical help from a medical practitioner. Should work-related dermatitis be diagnosed, the HSE will be notified under the RIDDOR regulations.
Our in-house system of surveillance for dermatitis will consist of:
Assessing workers' skin condition as soon as possible after starting work, e.g., within six weeks.
Examining the skin (usually hands and forearms) regularly, e.g., every week, every few months, and asking workers about their skin condition. The frequency will depend on the hazardous substances and usage.
Keeping records.
Unprotected hand contact with substances, products and wet work should be avoided where this is sensible and practical to do so.
Where avoiding direct contact with the substance is not always possible, the emphasis should be on protecting the skin, for example by:
Providing mild skin cleaning cream that will do the job and washing facilities with hot and cold water.
Informing workers to wash their hands before eating and drinking, and before wearing gloves.
Reminding workers to wash any contamination from their skin promptly.
Providing soft cotton or disposable paper towels for drying the skin. Tell workers about the importance of thorough drying after washing.
Protecting the skin by moisturising as often as possible and particularly at the end of the day – this replaces the natural oils that help keep the skin's protective barrier working properly.
Informing, instructing and training employees in proper hand washing and drying procedures. This is essential where they engage in frequent washing, drying and use of chemicals.
Using suitable pre-work creams.
*Guidance from the HSE was used to write this safety arrangement
This is a preview of the template. In Pilla, you can edit this to match your business.
What I'd want to see when reviewing this:
The risk assessment section is the foundation. I'd want to see that you've identified every product and process in your operation that could damage skin, and that each one has a COSHH assessment linked to it. That means reviewing safety data sheets, understanding what chemicals are in your cleaning products, and documenting the control measures for each. A vague statement like "we assess all products" is not enough. Name them.
The avoidance section matters more than most businesses realise. Before you reach for gloves, ask whether the contact can be eliminated. Can you use a dishwasher instead of hand washing? Can you provide utensils so staff don't handle food directly? Can you substitute a less irritating cleaning product? Avoidance sits above protection in the hierarchy of control, and an HSE inspector will ask whether you've considered it.
The health surveillance section is where I see the most uncertainty. If your COSHH assessments show that employees remain at risk of dermatitis despite your controls, you need a system to check their skin condition. The template covers baseline checks within six weeks of starting work, regular follow-ups, and record keeping. You need to decide who carries out the checks and how often, based on the level of risk.
Common mistakes I see:
The glove section is where businesses trip up most often. The template specifies that gloves must be suitable for the specific substances involved. I still find operations using one type of glove for everything: washing up, handling chemicals, food prep. Different chemicals require different glove materials. Latex doesn't protect against every solvent. Nitrile doesn't protect against every chemical. If you can't explain why you chose the gloves you're using, that's a problem.
The moisturiser provision gets overlooked. The template includes it because moisturising is a genuine control measure, not a nice-to-have. It replaces the natural oils that keep the skin's barrier working. I've audited sites where gloves and training were spot-on, but nobody had thought to provide hand cream. The staff's hands told a different story.
The reporting and response section is often the weakest part. The template covers what should happen when an employee reports symptoms: review their work activities, check controls are being followed, consider temporary duty modifications, and arrange medical advice if symptoms persist. Most policies I review say "report to your manager" and stop there. That's not a response system. It's a suggestion.
Automate the Follow-Up with Poppi
Writing the policy is one thing. Making sure your team has actually read it is another. Poppi can handle the chasing so you don't have to.
If you mark the knowledge hub entry as mandatory, Poppi will track who's read it and who hasn't. You can set up automations to chase staff who are behind, notify managers when someone completes the policy, and get a regular report showing where the gaps are.
Here are three automations I'd set up for any knowledge hub policy:
Tom, you have 2 overdue policies to read and acknowledge
Overdue training reminders
Automatically chase team members who have mandatory policies they haven't read yet. Poppi sends the reminder so you don't have to.
Tom, you have 2 overdue policies to read and acknowledge
Emma has completed a mandatory policy
Video completion alerts
Get notified when a team member finishes reading or watching a policy, so you can track progress without chasing.
Emma has completed a mandatory policy
Training Report: 87% team completion. Tom and Sarah behind on 2 mandatory policies, due 3 days ago.
Training gap analysis
Get a regular AI report showing which team members are behind on mandatory policies and where the gaps are across your team.
Training Report: 87% team completion. Tom and Sarah behind on 2 mandatory policies, due 3 days ago.