evatech
Safety Management Services
Nelson, New Zealand
AgriBusiness. Issue 73. Jan/Feb 2009. HSNO-Series. Bruce Evans
New Years resolution’s … or more of the same?
We ended the previous column with a note to be careful how you started the Christmas BBQ.
I couldn’t help but notice in the DIY store this weekend whilst I was picking up some more BBQ supplies that the aerosols were locked away in a separate part of the store racking as required by the Police and the new anti-tagging laws.
Elsewhere in the same store an attempt had been made to collate the Class 5 swimming pool chemical; pity about all the BBQ fuel and flammable liquids stored alongside.
Flammable liquids take many forms and brand names including aerosols but they all need to be kept apart from class 5 materials. The large fire at year’s end in the Mitre10 store in Auckland was testimony of how much flammable liquid is stored on DIY store shelves. I wonder how many of the estimated 16,000 chemical storage locations have New Year’s resolutions planned to achieve their Location Certificates this year?
ERMA unhappy at low numbers of Location Certificates:
Official figures show that there are far too few Location Test Certificates (LTCs), with only 3000 being formally recorded. This is not the first time there have been official laments made about how few LTC’s there actually are as against how many there should be. What will it take to prompt chemical storeowners into securing their LTC’s ?
Perhaps the legal outcomes of the Tamahere IcePak fire and the operators’ decision to close that operation may provide some prompts for action. Speaking of action or the lack of it, Approved Handler renewals are due and ERMA promised to assist by preparing a synoptic guide of the many significant changes to the HSNO Act and associated legislation since 1 January 2004.
Renewal of Approved Handler Certificates
It is endeavouring to provide a document for ease of use, organised it by industry sector. The guide was to have been on ERMA’s website by Christmas, it is planned to be accessible by both test certifiers and applicants but it hasn’t appeared as yet.
There are many Supplier Approved Handlers first certified in 2004 who will be due for renewal in 2009. The renewal process is on one hand supposed to be a simpler process than the original, yet ERMA also expects Test Certifiers to ensure that all the legislative changes since 2004 be covered. So you can see there is a lot to be determined on the make up of AH renewal courses by the yet to be published ERMA guideline. Some 55,000 Approved Handler Certificates are reputed to need renewal between 2009 and 2013. Many of these will be held by these will be farmers who will have to renew their “user” AH Certificates before a purchase of tracked 6.1A-C product can be made.
Rural retailers united in tough Approved Handler stance:
The agrichemical supply industry led by Agcarm has come up with a rigid ‘no valid certificate = no sale’ policy supported by ERMA and the Department of Labour.
All retailers have been asked by ERMA to support this policy so it will be very hard for a farmer to purchase product that triggers an Approved Handler unless his or her AH Certificate is valid and current.
A similar policy will no doubt be seen as being needed between manufacturer and retailer. It might be a good idea to check out the renewal date on your supplier AH Certificate.
In turn, suppliers of toxic substances really need to be certain that a valid AH certificate holder is currently employed by the company they are supplying these materials to.
This is the key compliance step in the supply chain that is similar to the way both ammunition and explosives are dealt with.
Some suppliers of toxic tracked product want Approved Handlers
As a Test Certifier I am regularly contacted by metal working companies wanting to know about Approved Handler training courses for staff who handle a nasty hydrofluoric acid substance called ‘pickling paste’. The supplier is refusing to sell it to them because there is no AH Certificated staff on site.
What interests me is that the system seems to be working; but I really wonder because when I quote them the cost for an AH Certificate course for toxics they go awfully quiet. As yet nobody has fronted up for a single course in spite of numerous telephone calls.
I wonder if product substitution with a safer substance is taking place or is the potential purchaser of pickling paste able to secure supplies from somebody else?
I would like to think that the agrichemical supply industry is a ‘water tight’ system and that toxic trackable substances are only supplied to valid AH Certified people.
My first premises call in 2009 was to a industrial chemical supply company which was really struggling with HSNO compliance primarily because the products and safety data sheets for its stored products were not carrying any HSNO class or classification, providing a real challenge for the willing but uninformed.
In my experience with the agrichemical industry the supply of HSNO classifications on labels and SDS is now generally very good. Agriculture provides some good role models in this area for other industries to follow.