Hazardous substances, including petrol, solvents, industrial chemicals, agrichemicals, household cleaners and cosmetics, need to be approved before they can be used in New Zealand.
Approvals are also sometimes needed for the people who use them (such as explosives handlers), as well as the locations they are in, and certain types of storage facilities and equipment (for example tanks, gas cylinders).
The pages below will help you to determine what a hazardous substance is, check whether a substance is approved.
You can also ask for advice on the status of a substance, find out what substances are banned, and what the key requirements for using and managing a substance safely are.