Pest control business Flick Anticimex Ltd fined $250,000 after workers exposed to methyl bromide

Thursday, 9 December 2021

A pest control business has been fined $250,000 after failing to prevent workers being exposed to toxic methyl bromide gas.

Flick Anticimex Ltd​ was sentenced this week at the Auckland District Court, under the Health and Safety at Work Act, for exposing employees to toxic fumigants such as methyl bromide, hydrogen cyanide and formaldehyde.

WorkSafe began an investigation after workers at the fumigation service suffered acute methyl bromide poisoning as a result of ongoing exposure to the gas, which is banned in several countries.

The investigation found problems with fitting respiratory protective equipment (RPE), and that some workers were not using RPE at all, WorkSafe manager of health and technical services Api Poutasi​ said.

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“Practices around RPE were seriously below what they needed to be. Businesses shouldn’t rely on RPE as the main way to look after the health of their workers, they need to consider the hierarchy of controls.

“In this case workers were exposed due to the way the work was carried out, or due to ineffective respiratory protective equipment.”

Workers with facial hair were advised by Flick Anticimex to use Vaseline to help the mask fit their faces, but the efficacy of this technique was a widespread and “deeply concerning” myth, Poutasi said.

“Workers wearing RPE should be clean-shaven. Even a small amount of stubble can prevent a proper seal from forming.

“Vaseline does nothing to help this, and workers will still be wearing RPE which hasn’t formed a seal based on incorrect information from their employer.”

WorkSafe’s investigation also found the business standard was workers didn’t use RPE when carrying out formaldehyde fumigations and no staff had been adequately trained to clean and maintain the RPE equipment that they did have.

There was also no coherent system in place that monitored workers’ exposure to toxic fumigants.

The business had been advised by an occupational health consultant in 2019 that given the lethal nature of the fumigants involved, and the potential concentrations that workers would be exposed to, it was essential that RPE was provided and properly fitted.

Methyl bromide is most commonly used in New Zealand for treating logs for export – as well as imported goods – to control quarantine pests.

The colourless, odourless, non-flammable gas is toxic to humans and can damage the ozone layer.