Your Practical Guide to working safely with hazardous substances provides you with the supporting reference material for working through the 5 Steps to Safety. It provides you with information about using and storing your hazardous substances safely.
The guide can be downloaded as PDF sections below or in full by clicking here.
About 150,000 workplaces throughout New Zealand use hazardous substances. The risks they pose are often underestimated. For example, common hazardous substances like commercial cleaning products, paints, adhesives, acids, bases and solvents can cause serious harm if not used safely.
Every hazardous substance imported into New Zealand or manufactured in New Zealand must be approved and have its classifications determined under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act (HSNO). Depending on its classification, rules are placed on a substance to manage the risks posed by that substance. These rules are known as controls.
Not understanding the harm that can occur when working with hazardous substances is a serious problem with serious consequences. Between 600 and 900 New Zealanders are estimated to die from work-related illness every year, many from exposure to hazardous substances. Exposure to different hazardous substances affects people in different ways. Health effects can include personality changes, sleep disorders, memory loss, cancer, fertility problems and even death. These serious health risks are why it's so important to safely manage the hazardous substances at your workplace and protect your health and the health of your workers and others.
Labels, safety data sheets and signs are all sources of information to warn people about the risks of the hazardous substances at your workplace.
Storing hazardous substances safely is an important part of protecting yourself, your workers, other people at the workplace, neighbouring properties and the environment.
Even the most safety conscious organisation can have an emergency. So you, your workers, and emergency service workers need to know what to do, and who is responsible for what in an emergency.
Compliance certificates are issued by compliance certifiers to show that users of hazardous substances have appropriate controls in place or have the appropriate knowledge and training. You might need a compliance certificate for people, locations or equipment.
A compliance certifier is an independent service provider authorised by WorkSafe New Zealand to issue compliance certificates.
Some very hazardous substances must be tracked, recording what happens to them from when they were imported into New Zealand or manufactured, through their distribution and transport, to their final use or disposal.