2017

The document gives clear guidance on assessment and reduction of risks to occupants and any others who potentially have been exposed to p or meth. All aspects of the proceedure will be carried out and removal and destruction of materials will be in accordance with good practice.

The standard has been developed by a standards committee of 21 persons who have abided by the Standards and Accreditation Act 2015. All standards in New Zealand are developed and formed in this way. Standard New Zealand approached relevent parties to nominate individuals to the development committee. Once the committee had been approved by the Standards Approval under the Act they met between June 2016 and May 2017.

The committtee consisted of representatives of all relevent groups within the meth testing industry such as:

Sampling and testing operators

Decontamination contractors

Property investment and management interests

Insurance sector

Local and public health authorities

Testing laboratories

The Government also had representatives from Ministry of Health ( the body which commisoned the review and the 2010 guidelines), Ministry for the Environment and Housing New Zealand. The Local government was represented by officals from Auckand, and Hutt City council and local Government New Zealand.

The committee worked under the standards and Acceditation Act 2015 and also made sure it aligned with international practices.

An inital draft was made available for public consulutation between December 2016 and February 2017. Nearly 1300 comments were received all of which were reviewed by the committee. The standard was balloted on by all 21 members of the committee, a second ballot was required before there was sufficant concensus in the final standard. The new standard was then approved by the Standards Approval Board on 22nd June 2017 which was in line with the Standards and Accreditation Act 2015.

This new standard has now given strong direction to all parts of the process with regard to meth contaminated properties. The previous guidelines by the from 2010 were only for use in properties found to have been used as clandestine laboratories where the manufacture had taken place. Nor did the previous guidelines address contamination by users within properties. The new document fully encompases all aspects of the issues needing to be addresed.

This standard will be used by by meth testers and samplers, the clean up and decontamination companies, testing and analysing laboratories receiving samples taken from properties, health and safety and environmental regulators, property owners and managers and insurers.

The clean up levels in the news standard are;

The maximum levels after clean up and decontamination in high use areas defined as bedrooms, living areas, kitchens, bathrooms, laundries, and sheds/garages is 1.5 micrograms per 100 square centimetres of areas sampled.

For limited use areas such as crawl spaces whch would be accessed for short periods by adults only the limit is 3.8 micrograms per 100 square centimetres of areas sampled.

Expert advise on exposure risks was obtained from Environmental Science and Research (ESR) and the Ministry of Health .Views from the public were also taken into account from the first draft thus the new levels for the standard were agreed by the committee as the maximum acceptable levels after decontamination of an affected property.