Health and Safety Documents for Aromatherapists

Aromatherapy involves the professional use of essential oils - concentrated plant extracts that are classified as hazardous substances under COSHH regulations. Essential oils present well-documented inhalation, skin contact, and skin sensitisation risks with regular professional occupational exposure. Many essential oils are known skin sensitisers that can cause allergic reactions with repeated contact. || For an aromatherapist, COSHH exposure is central to the work itself. Inhalation of essential oil vapour during blending and during treatment, skin contact during massage application, and contact with concentrated oils during preparation are all routes of exposure that need to be assessed throughout the working day. || A COSHH assessment specifically addressing the essential oils you use is a legal requirement. A risk assessment covering your treatment environment, client contact, and lone working, alongside a health and safety policy and fire safety documentation, complete the compliance picture.

The irony of aromatherapy compliance is that the very substances that define the therapy - essential oils - are among the most chemically active substances that any complementary therapist works with, yet formal COSHH documentation is almost entirely absent from aromatherapy practice. || Essential oil skin sensitisation is a significant occupational health risk for therapists who work with concentrated oils every day. A COSHH assessment is not just a compliance exercise - it is practical protection for the therapist's long-term health. || CompliantDocs generates aromatherapy-specific COSHH documentation from the essential oils and blends you tell us you use in your practice.