Chemical safety is an important issue for all schools who have legislative obligations to use and handle chemicals safely.

All schools need to manage hazardous chemicals as per the Work, Health and Safety Regulations. This includes maintaining a hazardous chemicals register and holding current Safety Data Sheets (SDSs) for each hazardous chemical and ensuring all containers are appropriately labelled.

There are many places around the school that chemicals are used, these include but are not limited to:

• Staff areas and kitchens – washing up liquid, dishwasher chemicals.
• Laboratories –  various laboratory chemicals.
• Art classrooms – paints, solvents, glues.
• Technical classrooms – solvents, stains, glues.
• Photography dark rooms – developers, fixatives.
• Cleaner’s storerooms – cleaning detergents, bleaches, drain cleaners.
• Maintenance sheds / rooms – petrol, paints, spray paints, oils.
• Swimming pools – acids, chlorine.

RESOURCES:

Chemwatch program GoldFFX, is used for managing chemicals and contains a searchable database of database of Safety Data Sheets (SDSs), both the vendor SDS and generic ones, to assist staff and students in the preparation of chemical registers and risk assessments.
For information about accessing through our membership contact Sharon Katina at CSNSW, sharon.katina@csnsw.catholic.edu.au.

CHEMICAL SAFETY IN SCHOOLS RESOURCE

This resource for teachers has been co-developed by CSNSW with DoE and AISNSW. To access this resource contact Sharon Katina – Education Policy Directorate, sharon.katina@csnsw.catholic.edu.au.

HAZARDOUS CHEMICALS

• Hazardous chemicals register fact sheet
  This fact sheet provides general guidance and requirements to prepare and maintain a register of hazardous chemicals.
• Model Code of Practice: Managing risks of hazardous chemicals in the workplace
  This model code of practice has been developed to provide practical guidance on how to manage health and safety risks associated with hazardous chemicals.
• Placarding for storage of hazardous chemicals
  When emergency services respond to fires and chemical spills the responders need to know the potential hazards involved. Placards are a means of alerting the emergency services and other persons to the presence of hazardous chemicals and providing information about them.

CHEMICALS OF A SECURITY CONCERN

• National Code of Practice for Chemicals of a Security Concern
  The code encourages organisations to consider and examine their own risks from a national security perspective and to take steps to reduce risks to ensure that chemicals are not stolen or diverted for terrorist purposes
• Chemical Security
  Australian National Security has identified chemicals of security concern because of their potential to be used by terrorists to make bombs or chemical weapons.

ASBESTOS

• Asbestos at work
  SafeWork NSW guidance on managing asbestos in the workplace, including an online asbestos awareness and safety course – free until 13 June 2024.
• How to Manage and Control Asbestos in the Workplace
  Safework NSW Code of Practice (Dec, 2022)
• National Strategic Plan for Asbestos Management and Awareness 2014–18
  Examines ways to improve asbestos management in the Australian community.

RADIATION

• Safety Guide: Use of Radiation in Schools
  – Part 1: Ionizing Radiation
  – Part 2: Lasers
  Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA)

SAFETY DATA SHEETS 

• Understanding Safety Data Sheets for Hazardous Chemicals
  This fact sheet outlines:
  – the information in a safety data sheet (SDS)
  – what each section in the SDS means

GLOBALLY HARMONISED SYSTEM OF CLASSIFICATION & LABELLING OF CHEMICALS (GHS)

• Chemicals and the GHS
  System of chemical classification and hazard communication (replaced the previous Approved Criteria for Classifying Hazardous Substances in 2017)
• Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS)
  Classification and Labelling of Hazardous Chemicals
• Fact Sheet: Understanding Hazardous Chemical Labels
  Safe Work Australia fact sheet provides information on how to understand the new labelling system for hazardous chemicals under the WHS Regulations
• Poster: Classification and labelling for workplace hazardous chemicals
  This poster shows the labelling information required for hazardous chemicals in each hazard class in the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals.

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