The household products harming children outlined in hazardous substance briefing to Health Minister Dr Shane Reti

Vapes, essential oils and household cleaning products are among the hazardous substances linked with hospitalisations of children aged under 4.

A briefing to Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has outlined injuries from hazardous substances and revealed the everyday products commonly involved.

Reti received the aide-memoire from Dr Nick Chamberlain, the national director of the national public service, in December last year.

GPs, hospital staff and other medical workers are required under law to notify any hazardous substance injuries.

The briefing, released to the Herald under the Official Information Act, outlines those reports and provided “key facts”, including:

• Children are more likely to have a hazardous substance injury while at home, compared to adults - a trend reported since 2018.
• Household cleaners (including drain cleaners, laundry powders, dishwashing liquids and bleach) are the most common exposures for children.
• For adults, the top-three most common exposure notifications relate to carbon monoxide, household cleaners and “other harmful gases”.

A substance is considered hazardous if it can explode, catch fire, oxidise, corrode, or is toxic to humans, animals, plants or the environment.

There can be multiple hazardous properties - methylated spirits and petrol are both flammable and toxic, for example.

Exposure can happen in many different ways, including through skin contact, breathing, eating or drinking.

Health Minister Dr Shane Reti.

Health effects can vary in seriousness and be short-term, including nausea and vomiting, and chronic, such as asthma, dermatitis and cancer.

Anonymised information about hazardous substance injuries are sent to Massey University’s Environmental Health Intelligence Unit.

Its latest summary on unintentional injuries found hospitalisation rates for children aged 0-4 have consistently been three to four times greater than other age groups.

In 2021-22, there were 583 notifications about children aged 0-4, mostly related to household cleaning products (62 notifications), agrichemicals (33 notifications, and including pesticides, insecticides and herbicides), vapes/nicotine (16), essential oil/diffusers (11) and petrol/diesel (six).

For men aged 15-64 over the same period, there were 534 hospitalisations.

These related to petrol, diesel and accelerants (101), cleaning products (64), concrete, paint and other construction materials (52), LPG, CO and other harmful gases (48), and fireworks and other explosives (43).

There were 208 hospitalisations for women of the same age, including those linked to cleaning products (44), LPG, CO and harmful gases (28), petrol, diesel and accelerants (13), agrichemicals (12) and fireworks and explosives (10).

Lead absorption is an issue. For injuries outside of work, the most common causes are exposure to lead-based paint, indoor rifle ranges and bullet and sinker manufacturing.

Occupational lead absorption is most common among painters and smelting/refinery workers. WorkSafe is notified and investigates after any notification.

Nicholas Jones is an investigative reporter at the Herald. He won the best individual investigation and best social issues reporter categories at the 2023 Voyager Media Awards.