Health and safety paperwork for painters and decorators

The hazards that actually matter

Every trade has a long list and a short one. The short one is what the task documents have to deal with properly, because it is where the serious harm comes from.

Solvent vapour

Enclosed rooms, poor ventilation and a full day of exposure. Effects range from headache and impaired coordination on the day to longer-term nervous system harm.

Isocyanates in two-pack

A potent respiratory sensitiser. Once a person is sensitised, any further exposure can trigger a reaction at levels that affect nobody else, and the sensitisation does not reverse.

Lead paint

Buildings painted before about 1980 may carry lead. Sanding, burning off or scraping releases it as dust and fume, and it reaches the family through clothing as well as the worker through air.

Falls

Ladders, trestles, planks and scaffold, on exterior work, for long periods, often alone and carrying a load.

Dust from sanding

Including silica where plaster and filler are involved, and lead where the substrate predates 1980.

Spray drift

Reaches neighbours, vehicles, waterways and other trades. An overspray claim is the commercial version; inhalation by someone who did not know you were spraying is the safety one.

Skin exposure

Solvents and epoxies cause dermatitis and sensitisation through repeated contact and through cleaning hands with thinners.

Confined spaces

Tanks, ducts and small unventilated rooms, where vapour accumulates and the atmosphere becomes both toxic and flammable.

What applies beyond the general duties

The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and the General Risk and Workplace Management Regulations 2016 apply to every business. These sit on top of them for this trade:

• Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2017, including inventory, signage, certified handler and emergency response duties
• Health and Safety at Work (Asbestos) Regulations 2016, for textured ceilings and pre-2000 substrates
• Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016, regs 5 to 8

Competence and licensing

Some substances require a certified handler. Respiratory protection used against vapour or lead must be the right class and face fit tested for the individual wearing it, which is a documented process rather than a size.

Notifying WorkSafe

Scaffolding from which a person could fall 5 m or more requires 24 hours' notice where you are erecting it. The full list and its exclusions are in notifiable work: the 10 categories.

What a main contractor will ask you for

• Safety data sheets for every product coming on site
• A Task Analysis for spray application, for lead paint work and for work at height
• Your ventilation and respiratory protection arrangements, with face fit records
• Lead and asbestos identification for pre-1980 and pre-2000 buildings
• Your containment and drift controls, and who you have notified

A document per task, not one for the job. The crew doing one task should not have to read past three others to find their controls, and a site manager checking one task should not have to either.

Where to start

If you are writing from scratch, how to write a Task Analysis sets out the order. If you have been asked for something and are not sure which document it is, which document do you need covers the difference between a site plan and a task document. Our prepared documents for this trade are the Painting Task Analysis Pack, or single documents from the catalogue.

Sources

• Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, s22 (reasonably practicable), s34 and s36
• Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016, regs 5 to 8
• Health and Safety in Employment Regulations 1995, reg 26 (particular hazardous work requiring notice)
• Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2017, including inventory, signage, certified handler and emergency response duties
• Health and Safety at Work (Asbestos) Regulations 2016, for textured ceilings and pre-2000 substrates
• WorkSafe New Zealand, Identifying, assessing and managing work risks

This guide is general information about New Zealand health and safety law as at the review date. It is not legal advice and it does not describe your site. Confirm what applies to you with WorkSafe New Zealand or your adviser.