Amendments to the Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2017

The Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2017 will come into force on Friday 1 December 2017, along with a number of corrections and minor amendments to clarify the intent of certain provisions.

The official amendment regulations, and the updates to the Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations, will be published on the Legislation website shortly (www.legislation.govt.nz). The amendment regulations will also be notified in the New Zealand Gazette (www.gazette.govt.nz) on Thursday 30 November 2017.

In the meantime please see the following link for a copy of the amendment regulations:

http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-services/employment-skills/workplace-health-and-safety-reform/development-of-regulations-to-support-the-new-health-and-safety-at-work-act/#hsrcabinetpaper

Further information about the new regulations, and what you need to know, can be found at: http://www.worksafe.govt.nz/worksafe/information-guidance/guidance-by-industry/hsno/hazardous-substances-regulations


Worksafe are please to announce they have released the below tools:

haz subs calculator

Hazardous Substances Calculator

You can use this Calculator to create your inventory and find out the controls you need to put in place to safely manage your hazardous substances.

Previously known as the HSNO Calculator, this has been updated to reflect the Hazardous Substances Regulations and has a number of improvements, including:

  • holding a more complete set of controls than the HSNO Calculator
  • providing useful help functions
  • indicating where each requirement is found in the Hazardous Substances Regulations
  • allowing you to search for an individual substance
  • emailing your PIN number to you (note: this is sent by the Calculator and it is up to you to store this information securely. We won't have access to your PIN number.)
  • guidance on how to use the calculator.

TIP: Before you use the Calculator, we recommend that you write a list of your substances, the quantities, where they are stored, and look at where you can eliminate them, or reduce the quantities you have. Then, when you create your inventory in the Calculator, you are only dealing with the substances and quantities you need to manage.

Updating your records

If you have already created an inventory in the HSNO Calculator, your information will have transferred into the new Hazardous Substances Calculator. Using your current PIN, you will need to go into the new Calculator and complete the new fields. This is also a good time to review all your information to check that it is up to date.

A note on PIN numbers – we cannot access your PIN number, or your records. If you have forgotten your PIN you will need to create a new inventory (you will receive a new PIN).

Hazardous Substances Toolbox

The Calculator is housed in the Hazardous Substances Toolbox, a great source of tools and information. As well as the Calculator it provides:

Your practical guide to working with hazardous substances

A Workbook to help you create your inventory

An Inventory Form – a template for a written inventory

Coming soon – the updated Emergency Management Flipchart to help you prepare for an emergency.

Safe work instruments

The Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety has approved the first 14 hazardous substances safe work instruments (SWIs) to commence on 1 December. These are now available for viewing on the hazardous substances safe work instruments web page.

Submissions

Thank you to those who took the time to provide us with a submission on the proposed hazardous substances SWIs. Your feedback was very useful and helped inform their development.

You can read a summary of submissions that has been published on our website.

New website

New website is live

This week worksafe launched their new website which brings together six of their previous websites (including those for energy safety, safer farms, construction, forestry and manufacturing) into a single, streamlined website.The easy-to-use website works on all mobile and tablet devices and has excellent search features.

They’ve also taken the opportunity to review and refine their web content to make it as easy as possible to find the information you need. The site includes a range of new digital tools including data visualisations and online notification forms.

For the information about the Hazardous Substances Regulations, go to our hazardous substances landing page and start navigating your way around.

If you have previously bookmarked pages in any of thir old sites, they’ve put in place automatic redirects from the most heavily used pages. If an automatic redirect isn’t in place, you’ll be taken to a page of relevant search results to help you find the content you are looking for. If you have feedback on the new site, please let Worksafe know via our feedback webpage.

Health and Safety