What are dangerous goods?
Dangerous goods are defined under Schedule 1 of the Dangerous Goods Safety Management Regulation 2001 (PDF, 658 KB) . They have the potential to cause immediate harm to people, property and the environment due to the possibility of a fire, explosion, release of toxic, flammable, or corrosive materials during a storage or handling incident.
These materials may be dangerous because of one or more of the following properties:
- an ability to cause or accelerate combustion
- acute toxic effects
- an ability to cause corrosion of skin and other materials
- capacity to harm the environment
- potential to cause asphyxiation by displacement of oxygen
- temperature or pressure hazards
- ability to react with other materials adversely.
They are divided into nine classes, some of which are divided into divisions according to the nature of the hazard.
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