Our Safer Homes programme
Find out more about the Safer Homes programme, activities and resources.
Find out more about the Safer Homes programme, activities and resources.
Hazardous chemicals are in our homes and lives, and in places where we may not realise.
Did you know you can find hazardous substances in cleaning products, toothpaste, make-up, pet shampoos and even kids’ colouring-in crayons?
Our Safer Homes programme helps New Zealanders to keep themselves and their families safe at home around hazardous substances. These chemicals are essential parts of many household products, so it’s important to use them in ways that keep everybody safe and without damaging our environment.
Our programme promotes safety messages by getting involved with community events and shows around the country.
We also team up with schools and community groups to share our messages, and find out what's important to them and their whānau to protect themselves and the environment from chemical harm.
We work alongside organisations with similar safety messages to share and educate communities together. For example:
We have also partnered with New Zealand Rugby to visit schools in targeted areas, and we work with councils to distribute information and guidance in their regions.
The data that we use to determine where and how we are going to deliver the programme is from our HSNO Monitoring Reports, and the EHINZ (Environmental Health Indicators NZ) and Massey University annual reporting on hazardous substances-related hospitalisations.
Read the HSNO monitoring reports
Read about EHINZ environmental health indicators — hazardous substances
If you are interested in learning more about the Safer Homes programme and becoming involved, please email us at saferhomes@epa.govt.nz.
Keep up to date with the EPA, including Safer Homes news, events and competitions by liking our EPA Facebook page.
You can also read the media releases we've sent out about the programme on our website.
Check our website for the latest media stories
Our poster shows six actions you can take to keep everyone safe at home.
Read a description of our 'Using household chemicals safely' poster
Download and print the poster in different languages.
Safer Homes poster - English (PDF, 583KB)
Safer Homes poster - Māori (PDF, 582KB)
Safer Homes poster – Chinese (PDF, 896KB)
Safer Homes poster – Cook Island Maori (PDF, 773KB)
Safer Homes poster – Fijian (PDF, 750KB)
Safer Homes poster – Niuean (PDF, 748KB)
Safer Homes poster – Samoan (PDF, 750KB)
Safer Homes poster – Tokelauan (PDF, 752KB)
Safer Homes poster – Tongan (PDF, 798KB)
Safer Homes poster – Tuvaluan (PDF, 752KB)
Download and print our activity sheets:
Find the chemical dangers activity sheet - te reo Māori (PDF, 230KB)
Find the chemical dangers activity sheet - English (PDF, 938KB)