Hazardous Substances & Dangerous Goods

Hazardous substances are classified on the basis of health effects, whether acute (immediate) or chronic (longer term).

Dangerous goods are classified on the basis of immediate physical or chemical effects, such as fire, explosion, corrosion and poisoning. An incident involving dangerous goods has the potential to seriously affect property or the environment.

What are Hazardous Substances and Dangerous Goods?

Hazardous Substance – is a substance that contains ingredients that may be harmful to health in the medium or long term. This includes substances that are lethal and non-lethal - corrosive, toxic, irritant, sensitising, mutagenic, teratogenic or carcinogenic. The concentration level of each ingredient in a mixture is taken into account in determining whether the mixture as a whole is determined to be hazardous.

Dangerous Goods – a hazardous substance also defined by the Dangerous Substances Act, 1979, to be dangerous. They are classified on the basis of immediate physical or chemical effects that may impact on people, property or the environment – explosive, flammable, corrosive, chemically reactive, highly combustible, acutely toxic, radioactive or infectious.

Poisons – Poisons include substances listed as Scheduled Poisons under the Poisons and Therapeutic Goods Act.

Carcinogens – substances which have the ability to cause cancer.

HSIS

The Austrlian Government register of hazardous substances called the Hazardous Substances Information Service (HSIS) is the reference for classifying hazardous substances.  The register can be searched and there is also a consolidated list available as PDF.

Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS’s)

MSDS’s are required for all chemicals that are deemed hazardous by NOHSC. MSDS’s must be obtained for all chemicals in use or stored.

The MSDS’s must:

• be readily available to personnel using the substances with information on chemicals in a form that is easily understood by the user
• identify if the substance is a designated hazardous substance
• meet the needs of those employees with language or literacy difficulties.

Registers and Manifests

A hazardous substances “register” is for the use of persons in the workplace who are potentially exposed to hazardous substances and for the person in control to keep track of the hazardous substances they have in their workplace.

A dangerous goods “manifest” is for the use by emergency services so they know what flammables, explosives, corrosives, toxics, etc are stored on the premises in the event of an emergency such as a fire or chemical spill. The “manifest” is normally kept in a locked container at the main entrance to the premises.