What law applies
In order to understand the workplace health and safety requirements for hazardous materials, and your obligations under the law you must consider and understand relevant legislation and codes of practice.
General health and safety obligations
What you must do
Specific legislation for hazardous materials
Specific codes of practice for hazardous materials
General health and safety obligations
To understand your obligations and safety requirements you must be familiar with the:
- Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 (PDF, 766 KB), which imposes obligations on people at workplaces to ensure workplace health and safety
- The Workplace Health and Safety Regulation 2008 describes what must be done to prevent or control certain hazards which cause injury, illness or death
- Codes of practice, which are designed to give practical advice about ways to manage exposure to risks common to industry.
Every Queensland employer must have workers' compensation insurance. Most employers insure with WorkCover Queensland, while a small number of large organisations have their own insurance. This insurance coverage ensures that employees injured at work receive financial support.
What you must do
It is a requirement of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 that risks must be assessed and control measures then implemented and reviewed to prevent or minimise exposure to the risks.
If the regulation describes how to prevent or minimise a risk at your workplace you must do what the regulation says. If there is a code of practice that describes how to prevent or minimise a risk at your workplace you must do what the code says or adopt and follow another way that gives the same level of protection against the risk.
If there is no regulation or code of practice about a risk at your workplace you must choose an appropriate way to manage exposure to the risk. People must, where there is no regulation or code of practice about a risk, take reasonable precautions and exercise proper diligence against the risk.
See the Risk Management Code of Practice 2007 for further information.
Specific legislation for hazardous materials
Hazardous substances
Part 13 - Hazardous substances, of the Workplace Health and Safety Regulation 2008 clearly sets out the way workplace health and safety risks from certain hazards must be managed.
Part 17 of the Workplace Health and Safety Regulation 2008 clearly sets out the way workplace health and safety risks from certain hazards must be managed at construction workplaces.
Lead
Part 14 - Lead, of the Workplace Health and Safety Regulation 2008 describes how to prevent or minimise the risk to health from exposure to lead at a workplace.
Dangerous goods
The Dangerous Goods Safety Management Act 2001 (PDF, 629 KB) and Dangerous Goods Safety Management Regulation 2001 (PDF, 658 KB) clearly sets out obligations for dealing with dangerous goods including storage and handling, transport of goods too dangerous to be transported under the Australian Dangerous Goods Code, combustible liquids, major hazard facilities, dangerous goods locations, and minor storage workplaces.
The Queensland Department of Emergency services Guide to the Dangerous Goods Safety Management Act 2001 (PDF, 89 KB) outlines these obligations, and provides definitions and information to help explain requirements under the Act.
Who does the Dangerous Goods Safety management legislation apply to?
Specific codes of practice for hazardous materials
Please note, from 18 November 2004 the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 was amended so that:
- all advisory standards that were in force on that day were continued as codes of practice and now expire 10 years after their commencement; and
- all existing industry codes of practice that were in force on that day now expire 10 years after their commencement.
The Hazardous Substances Advisory Standard 2003 (now known as a Code of Practice) has been developed for people working with hazardous substances. It gives practical advice on ways to manage specific risks that arise when hazardous substances are used at workplaces.
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