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Hazardous Substances on the Farm: What You’re Using, What It Can Do to You, and How to Stay Alive, Legal, and Productive

Hazardous Substances on the Farm – The Quiet Risks That Don’t Make Noise Until It’s Too Late

Every farm in New Zealand is a working chemical yard. Fuel tanks. Drench. Vaccines. Dip. Effluent treatments. Fertilisers. Silage additives. Welding gas. Acids. Alkalis. Cleaning agents. And in older sheds, houses, yards, and fences – asbestos.

Most of it is essential. None of it is harmless.

The danger with hazardous substances on farms isn’t drama. It’s familiarity. You handle the same drums, the same sprayers, the same containers every week until the risk becomes invisible. Then one bad mix, one unlabelled drum, one cracked asbestos sheet, and the damage is done.

What Counts as a Hazardous Substance on a Farm?

Common farm hazardous substances include:

  • Agrichemicals (herbicides, pesticides, fungicides)

  • Animal drenches and veterinary medicines

  • Diesel, petrol, oils, and LPG

  • Fertilisers and urea

  • Acids and alkalis (dairy shed cleaners, effluent treatments)

  • Welding gases and solvents

  • Disinfectants and sanitisers

  • Silage additives and preservatives

  • Batteries and corrosives

  • Old building materials containing asbestos (sheds, yards, houses, fences, cladding, roofing)

They can burn skin, blind eyes, damage lungs, disrupt hormones, poison waterways, kill livestock, and in some cases quietly shorten your working life.

Asbestos is different again. You can’t smell it. You can’t feel it. You only find out decades later.

That’s why specialist companies like PropertyHelp Ltd, a Class B Asbestos Removalist in Auckland, exist – to deal with the one farm hazard you can’t “just be careful” with.

The Law Farmers Need to Know (Plain English)

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and the Hazardous Substances Regulations, you must:

  • Know what hazardous substances are on your farm

  • Understand the risks to people, animals, and the environment

  • Store them correctly

  • Use them according to the label and Safety Data Sheet (SDS)

  • Train anyone who uses them

  • Prevent spills, leaks, fires, and exposure

  • Manage old asbestos-containing buildings safely

If someone gets hurt or poisoned, “we’ve always done it this way” is not a defence.

The Harm You Don’t See Coming

1. Chemical Exposure

Chronic low-level exposure causes:

  • Respiratory disease

  • Skin conditions

  • Neurological damage

  • Fertility problems

  • Increased cancer risk

2. Mixing Incompatibles

Bleach and acids. Acids and ammonia. Fertiliser and fuel.
Some reactions release toxic gas. Some explode. Some burn skin to bone.

3. Asbestos in Old Farm Buildings

Sheds, woolsheds, calf sheds, pump houses, dairy yards, farm houses, and boundary fences often contain asbestos cement.

Cutting, drilling, breaking, or demolishing without controls releases fibres that:

  • Stay in soil

  • Travel on wind

  • Settle in dust

  • Stay in lungs permanently

This is Class B asbestos work and must be managed, often by licensed operators like PropertyHelp Ltd Auckland.

Common-Sense Rules That Save Lives

Know What You’ve Got

Keep a Hazardous Substances Register.
If it’s on your farm and can burn, poison, explode, or suffocate – write it down.

Read the Label Like Your Health Depends on It

Because it does.

  • PPE requirements

  • Mixing rules

  • First aid instructions

  • Environmental warnings

They’re not suggestions.

Store Like You Mean It

  • Locked chemical sheds

  • Bunded fuel tanks

  • Separation of incompatible products

  • Clear labelling

  • Ventilation

  • No sun-baked plastic drums about to split

Wear the Boring Gear

Gloves, goggles, respirators, coveralls.
Skin is not PPE. Lungs are not filters.

Train Everyone Who Touches It

Staff, contractors, family.
If they don’t know the hazard, they become it.

Asbestos: The Farm Hazard That Outlives You

Old asbestos roofing and cladding doesn’t rot. It waits.

Once disturbed:

  • Fibres lodge in lungs

  • Exposure is cumulative

  • Disease appears decades later

No amount of toughness undoes that.

Professional Class B asbestos removal – like that carried out by PropertyHelp Ltd in Auckland and surrounding regions – uses:

  • Wet removal methods

  • Controlled exclusion zones

  • Respiratory protection

  • Legal transport and disposal

  • Compliance with the Asbestos Regulations 2016

Because asbestos is not a maintenance job. It’s a containment job.

Safe Use Around the Farm – Practical and Real

  • Never decant chemicals into drink bottles

  • Never store acids with chlorine products

  • Keep fuel away from fertiliser and oxidisers

  • Ventilate spray sheds and workshops

  • Pressure-wash only non-asbestos surfaces

  • Assume pre-1990 buildings contain asbestos until tested

  • Isolate, label, and control – don’t ignore and hope

Final Word for Farmers

Hazardous substances keep farms running. Mismanaged, they also stop farms cold – through injury, prosecution, contamination, or illness that never goes away.

Knowing what you’re using, what it can do to you, and how to control it is no longer “health and safety paperwork”. It’s operational survival.

And when it comes to asbestos, the safest decision is often the one that says:
“This is not a DIY job.”

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