Broadly speaking, hazardous substances will have individual approvals if any of the following apply:

• If you intend to use the product for biocidal purposes (killing something). These include pesticides (herbicides, insecticides, fungicides etc), vertebrate toxic agents, fumigants, antifouling paints and timber treatments. Note that veterinary medicines, which include biocidal products such as flea treatments, may fit within the scope of the veterinary medicines group standards.
• If the substance is a fuel. These include petrol and LPG.
• If the substance is high hazard it will not fit in a group standard.
• Some single chemicals have individual approvals.

If your product falls within one of these categories, it is likely to not fit in a group standard. Looking to match an individual approval is appropriate.

In the case of biocidal substances your product will match an approval only if the active ingredient (the biocidal agent) is in a similar range as that of the approval.

You may either already know of an approval a similar active ingredient concentration, otherwise you can look it up in our Controls for Approved Hazardous Substances Database. When searching, it is helpful to enter the active ingredient of your product into the database with percentage symbols on either side. For example, if the active ingredient is mancozeb, enter %mancozeb% into the database.

The active ingredient must be within the following tolerances:

If the active ingredient does not match the tolerance, you will need to contact us for a full approval.

You can chose to self-classify your product, or ask for help to do this from either a consultant or someone at the EPA. To classify your product, you will require information on the hazards. It could be either from hazard data (such as toxicity data) on the product or the components, or information from the SDS or either the product or the components of the product.

Caution: The classification of a product is a very technical process, and you should ensure you fully understand what is involved before you decide to self-classify. We have resources that can step you through this (found in the related content links), but if you are at all uncertain, we strongly advise that you seek independent technical advice, or contact us.

Our database, the CCID, may provide useful information. Learn more about it here.

You must ensure your product has the same HSNO classification as the existing approval. This means your product must have all the hazards listed under the approval you have selected.

When you select an existing approval in the Controls for Approved Hazardous Substances Database the hazard classification for that approval is given.

Your product must also have the same physical state and form as the existing approval. For example, if your product is a solid granule you can only match it to an approval that is in granular form.

If your product’s hazard classification and physical form does not match the approval you will need to contact the EPA to make an application.

Before you assign your product to an existing approval you must ensure its use is allowed by the HSNO controls. You need to read all the controls that apply to the approval you want to assign your product to. The Controls for Approved Hazardous Substances Database lists all the controls that apply to an approval.

You must ensure that your product will not be used for purposes that do not comply with conditions of the approval.