Public ‘well protected’ by out dated laws

Press, 15 July 1985, Page 7

Public ‘well protected’ by out dated laws

PA Wellington New Zealand’s Dangerous Goods Regulations are dated and will be replaced, said the Minister of Labour, Mr Rodger.

He also said the public was “well protected” by the laws against the hazards of fire or explosions from dangerous goods stored in bulk installations.

Mr Rodger said his department’s chief inspector of dangerous goods, Mr Harry Richards, would report next week on the explosion and fire in a bulk fuel storage tank at Lyttelton last month. Labour Department sources said the report was expected to discuss whether the tank should be rebuilt or demolished.

The Minister was responding to recent criticism that the dangerous goods legislation was “unsatisfactory and close to scandalous.” The comments

were made by a Christchurch solicitor at a public meeting in Lyttelton, last week, when 200 residents voted to ask Mobil to dismantle the' fuel tank which exploded on June 24. Mr Rodger said that although basic satisfactory philosophy did not change, technology did, and the present Dangerous Goods Regulations, framed in 1958, had become dated.

“New regulations covering flammable liquids are expected soon but they will contain the same fundamental safety principles as the existing law,” he said.

The new regulations would metricate, clarify and improve the present regulations.

“I wish to reassure the public that the present law gives quite adequate protection against fire or explosion from dangerous goods stored at bulk installations,” said Mr Rodger.

“If a fire does occur, as happened in Lyttelton recently, the standards contained in the regulations are sufficient to ensure that any risk to life is extremely low.”