DIY safety – practical advice for home renovators

Home renovators now have access to practical advice about avoiding the negative health impacts caused by exposure to hazardous materials and chemicals when renovating their homes.

NSW Health and the Department of Environment and Conversation have created a guide and website (www.diysafe.nsw.gov.au) to give home renovators important, simple advice and practical tips to avoid harming their own and their family’s health while renovating.

Lot ’s of people who choose to renovate their home have young families. Children and pregnant women are particularly susceptible to dangerous fumes and dusts emitted during renovations.

The good news is that proper planning, safe work practices and a thorough clean up will help to reduce the health risks created by hazardous materials during renovations.

The Do-it-yourself SAFELY guide and website identifies the most common hazards such as lead, asbestos, treated timber, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and powdered materials such as cement, fillers, adhesives and plaster.

Even minimal exposure to these materials can lead to short-term health problems such as lethargy, headaches, nausea and skin rashes.

Those exposed are also at risk of more serious conditions such as respiratory problems, nerve damage, allergies, severe poisoning and possibly cancer.

Pregnant women, babies and young children may be more susceptible to the effects of hazardous materials at much lower levels of exposure. Animals can be affected too.

Protecting yourself and others from hazards is easy if you prepare well and follow some simple steps:

• Identify hazards
• Prepare the work area
• Use safe work practices
• Clean up properly.

The best advice is to plan ahead and move out for the time the renovations are ongoing. If that’s not possible, and for many people it won’t be, then plan to keep pregnant women, children and pets away from work areas until the clean-up finishes.

Don’t forget to tell your neighbours about your renovations so they can also take steps to protect themselves if necessary. During home renovations, people are often exposed to lead in the form of domestic lead paint, solder, damp coursing, flashing and solder.

This is particularly dangerous for children and can lead to developmental disabilities.

When working with asbestos it is important to minimise the release of dust or small particles. If you use commonsense and follow safety guidelines, working with fibro products should not be a problem.

Further information on materials containing asbestos can be obtained from http://www.nsw.gov.au/fibro/

The Do-it-yourself SAFELY guide also provides a number of useful contacts and websites for further information such as how homeowners can identify hazards in their home, the transporting and disposal of waste materials and the safe use of various chemicals.

For further information view the Do-it-yourself SAFELY website at www.diysafe.nsw.gov.au