The gauge · Reading 1
Fumigation in Queensland: the risk area, the barricades and the signs
Under Queensland’s pest management regulation, a licensed technician must inspect for risk areas before a fumigation, put up barricades around the exposure area with warning signs on them, and take all reasonable steps to keep people out until satisfied it is safe. The customer then gets a clearance certificate, and nobody may move the barricades or signs without permission.
General information about Queensland law, not legal advice and not instructions for carrying out a fumigation, which is a licensed technician’s work. The regulation on Queensland’s legislation site is the official text.
What counts as a fumigation
Queensland’s Medicines and Poisons Act 2019 defines it by what the chemical does once it becomes a gas:
“A person carries out a fumigation activity if the person prepares or uses a substance to do any of the following activities when the substance becomes gaseous: (a) kill a pest; (b) sterilise grain or seed to prevent germination; (c) treat soil in which pests might be living; (d) another activity prescribed by regulation.”
Medicines and Poisons Act 2019, section 19(2); the law’s dash before the list is set here as a colon
For a building, Business Queensland says structural fumigation is commonly known as tenting or tent fumigation, and that it is a specialist service not all pest management technicians are authorised to do. The fumigation duties in the regulation apply to a licensed technician whose licence authorises fumigation, and Queensland Health says an activity risk management plan is needed before a fumigation at any location.
The named areas, drawn
The regulation speaks of a fumigation space, the area adjoining it, risk areas, and an exposure area held behind barricades. The drawing places the fumigation space and the barricaded exposure area for a house under a tent.
What the technician must do, section by section
These are some of the licensed technician’s duties, quoted from the regulation. Its fumigation rules run from section 21 to section 37 and include others not shown here, such as the activity risk management plan. They are the law’s, not steps for anyone else to follow.
- Section 25 · the notice
Section 25 is headed “Giving fumigation notice”, and “The fumigation notice must be dated and signed by the licensed technician.”
- Section 27 · risk areas
“Before carrying out a fumigation activity, a licensed technician must inspect the fumigation space for the activity and the area adjoining the space to identify each risk area for the activity, if any.”
- Section 29 · the barricade line
“Before carrying out a fumigation activity, a licensed technician must erect barricades to restrict access to the exposure area for the activity during the exposure period for the activity.”
- Section 30 · signs
“A licensed technician carrying out a fumigation activity must place warning signs on any barricades erected under section 29 around the exposure area for the activity.” There must be enough signs, placed so they are easy to see, to warn anyone coming toward the exposure area. They go up before the fumigation starts and stay up for the whole exposure period.
- Section 32 · a second person
While a fumigation is being carried out, “the technician must take all reasonable steps to ensure at least 1 other person more than 17 years is physically present at the site”.
- Section 35 · keeping people out
Section 35 also says “the licensed technician must take all reasonable steps to ensure no person enters the exposure area until the technician is satisfied the area is safe for entry”.
- Section 36 · clearance
When satisfied the exposure area is safe for entry, the technician must give the customer “a notice (a clearance certificate) for the activity”.
What the warning sign says
Section 30 says each warning sign must be on a white background. It must carry “the following words in red print and capital letters with a height of at least 50mm”: “danger”, “keep out” and “fumigation in progress”, followed by “with” and the name of the fumigant being used. It must also give contact details, in print of a colour and size that is easy to read: the business’s, if the technician is working for a pest management business, and otherwise the technician’s own.
Two rules that bind neighbours and passers-by
Most of the regulation speaks to the technician. Two sections speak to anyone:
“A person must not, without the permission of a qualified person carrying out a fumigation activity: (a) take down, remove or alter the position of a barricade erected by the person for the activity; or (b) deface, take down, remove or alter the position of a warning sign displayed by the person for the activity.”
Section 63, interfering with fumigation barricades or warning signs; the law’s dash before the list is set here as a colon
“A person must not smoke tobacco or any other substance in the vicinity of a fumigation activity being carried out.”
Section 64, smoking prohibited
Drywood termites and the tent
CSIRO’s termite guide says extensive drywood termite infestations that cannot be eradicated by applying insecticide foam or dust locally may require the building to be tented and fumigated. For the West Indian drywood termite, Business Queensland says to ask your technician for evidence of a licence with endorsements for timber pests and for fumigation, with the site environment specified. The termite itself is on West Indian drywood termites, and the notices for an ordinary treatment are on before and after a treatment.
The clearance certificate is the paper that says the technician is satisfied the exposure area is safe for entry.