The acquisition or use of any of the above poisons without an authority issued by the Ministry of Health is an offence, as is their supply, unless the person being supplied holds an authority to use the poison and the supplier also holds an authority to supply to the end-user of any of the above poisons.
Applications for an authority to supply, obtain or use any of the above highly dangerous Schedule 7 poisons are available on the License and authorisations web page.
Authorities issued by the Ministry of Health to supply, acquire or use highly dangerous Schedule 7 poisons are issued only for legitimate industrial and commercial purposes (subject to certain exemptions listed below) and applicants may be required to provide sufficient information to the Ministry as is necessary to determine the issuance of an authority.
Authorities are issued subject to a number of mandatory conditions attaching to the authorities, including purpose of use, storage and disposal requirements, and are valid only for a specific period of time.
These comprise all Schedule 7 poisons other than those listed above, for example; hydrofluoric acid above 1% hydrogen fluoride and potassium nitrite or sodium nitrite above 40%.
The acquisition, use or supply of any of these poisons requires an authority issued by the Ministry of Health when the poison is for use for domestic purposes only.
If the Schedule 7 poison (other than a highly dangerous Schedule 7 poison) is for use for non-domestic purposes, eg industrial, commercial, trade or agvet purposes, no authority is required in NSW.
The following general exemptions from the above requirements apply to the acquisition, use or supply of all Schedule 7 poisons:
It is expected that if a supplier believes that an exemption applies to the supply of a Schedule 7 poison, including a highly dangerous Schedule 7 poison, in one of the above categories of exemption, that some enquiries will be made to reasonably satisfy the bona fides of such an exemption prior to supply.
For example, a supplier should be satisfied that the bona fides of a person claiming to be in charge of a facility engaged in scientific research in a scientific establishment are legitimate by making some reasonable basic enquiries of the scientific establishment, prior to supply.
