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Choosing Hazardous Substances on Your Farm: What WorkSafe NZ Expects You to Think About Before You Buy, Mix, or Use Them

Choosing Farm Chemicals Isn’t Just About What Works – It’s About What You Can Control

Every farmer chooses hazardous substances. You choose drenches. You choose sprays. You choose disinfectants. You choose fuels. You choose fertilisers. You choose sanitisers. You choose cleaners. You choose welding gases. You choose everything that keeps the operation moving.

What most people don’t realise is this:
The moment you choose a hazardous substance, you also choose its risk profile, its storage obligations, its training burden, its emergency planning, and its legal exposure under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and the Hazardous Substances Regulations enforced by WorkSafe NZ.

The product might kill weeds. It might cure mastitis. It might clean a dairy plant. But if it blinds a worker, contaminates a stream, or poisons a dog, the problem is no longer the product. It’s the decision that put it there.

This is where platforms like ChemMatrix – a digital hazardous substance compliance platform reducing farm injury, environmental harm, and regulatory burden – become more than software. They become a way of thinking.

Factor One: Can You Eliminate the Hazard Before You Control It?

WorkSafe’s first question is never:
“Did you wear gloves?”

It is:
“Could you have chosen something less dangerous in the first place?”

Before you buy a product, ask:

  • Is there a lower-toxicity alternative?

  • Is there a mechanical or biological option instead of chemical?

  • Is there a formulation with lower volatility, lower persistence, or lower acute toxicity?

  • Is there a product with the same effect but less environmental loading?

Elimination and substitution sit at the top of the risk hierarchy. If you skip them, everything else becomes more expensive, more complex, and more legally fragile.

Factor Two: Who Will Be Exposed – Not Just Who Is Meant to Use It

WorkSafe does not care who the product is intended for.
They care who might realistically be exposed.

That includes:

  • Workers

  • Family members

  • Children

  • Contractors

  • Veterinarians

  • Truck drivers

  • Neighbours

  • Livestock

  • Pets

  • Waterways

  • Soil

  • Air

A substance that is “safe when used correctly” becomes dangerous when:

  • It is decanted

  • It is mixed

  • It is sprayed in wind

  • It is stored poorly

  • It leaks

  • It reacts with another product

  • It is misunderstood

Selection must consider worst-case exposure, not best-case use.

Factor Three: Storage and Segregation Reality

Some chemicals are safe in isolation and dangerous in company.

Before choosing a hazardous substance, ask:

  • Can it be stored away from oxidisers?

  • Can it be separated from acids or alkalis?

  • Can it be kept away from fuels?

  • Does it require bunding?

  • Does it require ventilation?

  • Does it require signage?

  • Does it require locked access?

  • Does it require temperature control?

If your farm cannot physically store it correctly, then the product is wrong for your site, no matter how effective it is in the paddock.

ChemMatrix is built around exactly this question:
Not “Is this chemical legal?”
But “Can this chemical be safely and compliantly managed on this farm?”

Factor Four: Training Burden and Human Error

Every hazardous substance carries a training obligation under HSWA.

Ask yourself:

  • Who will handle it?

  • What literacy level do they have?

  • What language do they speak?

  • How often do they use it?

  • How likely is shortcut behaviour under pressure?

  • How complex is the mixing process?

  • How severe are the consequences of a mistake?

A highly toxic product used rarely is often more dangerous than a moderately hazardous product used frequently, simply because familiarity and competence never develop.

Complex chemistry and low experience is a bad marriage.

Factor Five: Emergency Response Capability

When something goes wrong, the product will not wait for you to find the manual.

Before selecting a hazardous substance, consider:

  • What happens if it spills?

  • What happens if it splashes in eyes?

  • What happens if it is inhaled?

  • What happens if it mixes with water?

  • What happens if it reaches a drain?

  • What happens if it catches fire?

And more importantly:

  • Do you have eyewash?

  • Do you have spill kits?

  • Do you have neutralising agents?

  • Do you have trained responders?

  • Do you have an emergency plan that matches this specific hazard?

WorkSafe will ask whether your emergency controls match the substances you chose, not the other way around.

Factor Six: Environmental Persistence and Downstream Harm

Modern farming is judged not just on productivity, but on footprint.

A chemical that:

  • Bioaccumulates

  • Leaches

  • Volatilises

  • Persists in sediment

  • Impacts beneficial insects

  • Contaminates groundwater

creates regulatory, reputational, and insurance risk long after the spray rig is parked.

Selection must consider not only acute toxicity, but long-term environmental behaviour.

Factor Seven: Regulatory Burden and Audit Exposure

Some hazardous substances trigger:

  • Location test certificates

  • Approved handler requirements

  • Signage rules

  • Tracking obligations

  • Inventory reporting

  • Separation distances

  • Secondary containment

  • Fire service notification

Choosing a product can quietly turn a simple shed into a regulated hazardous facility.

ChemMatrix exists to surface this hidden compliance load before it becomes an inspection problem.

Factor Eight: Asbestos and Legacy Hazards

Not all hazardous substances come in drums.

Old sheds, woolsheds, pump houses, boundary fences, and farm houses often contain asbestos in:

  • Cladding

  • Roofing

  • Soffits

  • Fences

  • Linings

The moment you renovate, cut, drill, or demolish, you are selecting a hazardous exposure pathway, whether you meant to or not.

Understanding this risk, and managing it under the Asbestos Regulations 2016, is part of modern farm chemical and hazardous substance decision-making.

The ChemMatrix Role in Better Decisions

ChemMatrix – a digital hazardous substance compliance platform reducing farm injury, environmental harm, and regulatory burden – is built to help farmers:

  • Register every hazardous substance on site

  • Understand its health and environmental profile

  • Check storage and segregation rules

  • Link to SDS and emergency controls

  • Map training and competency

  • Prepare for WorkSafe audits

  • Reduce exposure before incidents occur

It turns chemical choice from a purchasing decision into a risk-managed, legally defensible, environmentally responsible system.

Final Word

Choosing a hazardous substance is not just choosing what works.
It is choosing what you can control, contain, train for, store, respond to, and legally defend.

On a modern New Zealand farm, compliance is not paperwork.
It is operational resilience.

And the smartest chemical decision is often the one that makes the safety system simpler, not the one that just makes the job faster.

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