Hazardous Property Controls

Sep 21, 2023 ·Updated: Sep 5, 2025 · #News

DISCLAIMER:

Please note that Linkup Paint Supplies does not provide legal advice. If you require specific advice or support in relation to compliance with HSNO you may need to engage a specialist consultant or technical advisor or seek your own legal advice.

The information outlined in the article below is deemed to be correct on the date of publishing.

Workplace-only restrictions for some hazardous substances

In 2023, we observed an increasing number of suppliers reaching out regarding substances listed under the Consolidated Hazardous Substances Hazardous Property Controls Notice 2017. This appears to be in response to the Environmental Protection Authority ("EPA") intensifying its enforcement of this regulation.

This heightened enforcement was recently underscored by a court decision in August 2025, where Ham Chem Hamilton Chemicals Limited was fined $35,000 by the Hamilton District Court. The company pleaded guilty to multiple breaches of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996, including violations of clause 13 of the Hazardous Property Controls Notice. The case highlights the serious consequences of non-compliance and reinforces the importance of adhering to EPA regulations designed to protect public health and the environment.

Substances restricted to workplaces under the HPC Notice include those with certain hazard classifications (for example, carcinogenicity Category 1) and some individual substances (for example, Feratox vertebrate toxic agents).

What is the notice?

The Hazardous Substances (Hazardous Property Controls) Notice 2017 has been in place since 1 December 2017, with an amendment in April 2021 including replacing old HSNO alpha-numeric classifications with GHS 7 classifications with minor changes to wording.

The notice outlines how hazardous substances with certain hazard classifications can only be supplied to a competent person or an authorised person, and only if suppliers (us - Linkup Paints) receive written notification that a competent person at the workplace accepts responsibility for the substance.

This applies any time the chemicals are sold in New Zealand. It includes importers selling to distributors, distributors to retailers and retailers to users for example.

A competent person is someone who either:

has received information, instruction and training to handle the substance
is a certified handler for the substance, where relevant.

In rare cases, the EPA can give permission for an authorised person to use restricted chemicals outside a workplace. In this case, we can supply restricted chemicals to the authorised person.

Under the Hazardous Substances (Hazardous Property Controls) Notice 2017 (HPC Notice), these substances must be stored and used only at workplaces, and suppliers (us - Linkup Paints) must keep records of the supply for 12 months from the date of sale.

These restrictions are to ensure the public are protected from exposure to these hazardous substances.

The EPA have recommend that all suppliers review the products we supply to identify if these are regulated by the HPC Notice and if so, ensure we are complying with the rules around these substances.

What does this mean?

Being a paint supplies company, we naturally stock a lot of products that fall under the coverage of the Hazardous Substances and New Organism Act 1996 (“the Act”). The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) is responsible for overseeing the operation of the Act. The EPA, has, under the Act, issued a Hazardous Substances (Hazardous Substances Property Controls) Notice (“the Hazardous Substances Notice”).

The Hazardous Substances Notice contains several mandatory requirements. In particular, suppliers must be satisfied when supplying products to customers that they have at least one authorised person (a holder of permission from the EPA) or competent person (a certified handler or has received information, instruction and training under the Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2017).

We have compiled a list of products currently in stock or accessible to us that are affected by the Consolidated Hazardous Substances Hazardous Property Controls Notice. As a precaution, these products have been removed from shelves for 'at home' cash sale customers. We will be contacting account holders who regularly purchase these items to ensure they have the appropriate documentation required to receive this stock.

What must be recorded?

We must keep written records for 12 months after we've supply the chemical. These records must include:

the product or chemical name
the name and address of the competent or authorised person who accepted the chemical
the date of supply
a copy of the notification that the competent person or authorised person will accept responsibility for the substance.

Download the Hamilton HPC Customer Notice Form

What are the penalties if we don't adhere to the notice?

Section 109(1) of the HSNO Act outlines offences, and Section 114 outlines the penalties for committing an offence against the HSNO Act.

If you have any questions about how this may affect you, please contact your local branch for more details.

Schedule 1

Certain substances restricted to workplaces only

Table 1

Substances to which clause 13 applies (subject to Table 2 exceptions)*

Explosives (class 1) [1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6]
Flammable liquids Category 1 [3.1A]
Desensitised explosives Category 1, 2, 3, 4 [3.2A, 3.2B, 3.2C, 4.1.3A, 4.1.3B, 4.1.3C]
Self-reactive substances and mixtures Type A, B, C, D, E, F [4.1.2A, 4.1.2B, 4.1.2C, 4.1.2D, 4.1.2E, 4.1.2F]
Pyrophoric liquids Category 1 [4.2A]
Pyrophoric solids Category 1 [4.2A]
Self-heating substances and mixtures Category 1 [4.2B]
Substances and mixtures which, in contact with water, emit flammable gases Category 1, 2, 3 [4.3A, 4.3B, 4.3C]
Oxidising liquids Category 1 [5.1.1A]
Oxidising solids Category 1 [5.1.1A]
Organic peroxides Type A, B [5.2A, 5.2B]
Acute toxicity Category 1, 2, 3 (oral, dermal or inhalation) [6.1A, 6.1B, 6.1C]
Skin corrosion Category 1A [8.2A]
Carcinogenicity Category 1 [6.7A]
Dianex (HSR101016)
Emulsifiable concentrate containing 500 g/litre dimethoate (HSR000193)
Emulsifiable concentrate containing 800 g/litre diazinon (Substance B) (HSR000181)
Fandango (HSR001722)
Feratox pellet A in 12g Ferafeed paste
Feratox pellet A in 18g Ferafeed paste
Feratox pellet A in 20 g Ferafeed paste
Feratox pellet A in 9 g Ferafeed Paste
Feratox pellet B (one pellet) in 18 g Ferafeed paste
Firefly (HSR007993)
Fury 120 SC (HSR101069)
Melody Duo (HSR001616)
Melody Duo NF (HSR007814)
Perfekthion S-1 (HSR000965)
PROLINE (HSR001661)
RF-046 (HSR101072)

Table 2

Exceptions to clause 13 restriction

Safety ammunition, including blank ammunition, pre-primed cartridges and primers, with a hazard classification of 1.4S
Fireworks with a hazard classification of 1.3G, 1.4G, 1.4S that are controlled under the Hazardous Substances (Fireworks) Regulations 2001
Emergency flares and signalling devices with a hazard classification of 1.3G, 1.4G, 1.4S
Model rocket motors with a hazard classification of 1.4G, 1.4S
Propellants with a hazard classification of 1.3C (UN 0161 and 0499)
Gunpowder with a hazard classification of 1.1D (UN 0027)
Igniting fuses with a hazard classification of 1.4G (UN 0317)
Igniters with a hazard classification of 1.4S (UN 0454)
Petrol
Aviation or racing gasoline with a hazard classification of flammable liquids Category 1
Optima Activator (Black) (HSR000103)
Optima Activator (Blue) (HSR000104)
Optima Activator (Red) (HSR000105)
Optima Activator (White) (HSR000106)

*GHS to HSNO correlations obtained from resources on the "New Zealand's hazard classification system" article on the EPA website.

If you need to check a GHS to HSNO correlation, take a look at our GHS to HSNO Processing tool.